A global fitness study has shown that many children cannot run as fast as their parents could when they were young. The figures presented at the American Heart Association's annual meeting suggest children's fitness levels are declining in Western countries. But some parts of Asia like South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong are also seeing this phenomenon.

Researchers analyzed data spanning 46 years and involving more than 25 million children in 28 countries. On average, children today run a mile 90 seconds slower than did their counterparts 30 years ago.

Across nations, cardiovascular endurance—gauged by how far children can run in a set time—has dwindled consistently by about 5% every decade, according to the findings. The decline in endurance is seen in boys and girls and across all ages from nine to 17 years, and is linked to obesity, with some countries faring worse than others. In the UK, half of seven year olds don't get enough exercise according to research. Whilst nearly two out of three boys do an hour's physical activity a day, for girls it is around one in three.

To stay healthy, children and young people need to do at least an hour of physical activity every day. This can be walking or cycling to school and running in the playground. It can be done in small chunks rather than one session.

Prof Michael Gwitz of the American Heart Association stresses that the exercise needs to make a person or child sweat and should be sustained and dynamic to promote cardiovascular fitness. Simply going to the gym or belonging to a school sports team might not be enough without plenty of movement. Parents, schools and community groups can all help kids on their way to 60 minutes exercise a day.

So how can anyone motivate children to be active? School sports are vital. But parental input is crucial. Seven year olds today face more distractions, more incentives to sit, than any previous generation. For many of them, the computer tablet, apps or smart phones are a part of daily life. Sadly, many regard playing outside as a dull alternative to controlling a computer game.

Telling them that they need to exercise and be healthy doesn't work for the average primary or secondary school child.

Two things are crucial. First is making physical activity routine—part of daily life. Walking to school is one obvious example. Parents who set an example and do exercise tend to have more active children. The second is finding a sport or activity which engages the child.

The Change4Life campaign is aimed at encouraging people of all ages to lead healthier, more active lives. Its motto, "Eat well, move more, live longer", sums up the aim of the campaign. It already has half a million members.

Using free apps and email messages Change4Life encourages children to take several small steps that will help lead to a permanent improvement in their health. This includes breaking down the perhaps daunting task of being active for at least 60 minutes into 10 minute chunks, plus suggestions for games which will tempt kids away from their screen.

In the Drop-Out 70s when my children were young, we had no such toys. We even gave up the television until the school required them to use it. When home in the country town of Robe, South Australia, they walked everywhere they needed to go, which included the swimming at the nearby beach, exercising at the playground and collecting firewood or wildflowers for our craft shop. Their father and I considered the possibility of a future apocalypse because of missiles pointed at all major cities in the world at that time. I made sure they would have every chance to survive if civilization should be destroyed.

What would happen to these unfit and unprepared children if a catastrophe, either natural or man-made, happened now?

See my co-written novels on the sidebar, where a young group of survivors in the future after the Great Flood form together to search for a way to save mankind. In the first of the Moonstone series, Wind Over Troubled Waters, sixteen-year-old Cerridwen loses her mother in a landslide.

Esther Rantzen, a mature television presenter, has set up a helpline for lonely pensioners. And with Christmas approaching, Miss Rantzen is only too aware that this is the loneliest time for some of the UK’s 10 million people now over 65. With this in mind she is rolling out The Silver Line, a 24-hour helpline service aimed at elderly people who are struggling to cope with loneliness, nationally on Monday November 25. Having successfully set up the ChildLine telephone service, for worried children, Miss Rantzen knew providing a similar service for the elderly would prove just as helpful.

But it's not just at Christmastime that elderly people feel a sense of loss. All year round, many people struggle daily to find some purpose in their lives, especially those without close family ties. The Silver Line has been running for a year, but now the service is to be set up nationwide.

Each one of us had a mother and a father. If they were good to us, we know how precious they are—how irreplaceable. My parents lived to their mid. 80s and I'd abandoned them in Australia when I left for England. My siblings took good care of them, and I wrote on a regular basis. I'm forever grateful that I took a trip back to see them one last time before they died.

But, now I'm facing a time of uncertainty in my later years. Separated from family and the grandchildren I never had a chance to know, I'm redundant. Despite living with the disability of not being able to walk without pain, I write, which gives me a sense of fulfillment. You'll see my published books on the sidebar. I've vowed to never have another operation—they go wrong. Besides that, what is the point at my age? I'm not a working member of society. I won't bother a busy doctor with my disturbing weakness. My husband takes care of me—at the moment. I'd rather not face what will happen in the future if he should be struck down.

Bravo to Esther Rantzen for setting up this Silver Line for all those people who feel alone and just need to talk to someone. I don't know what it's like in your country, but I hope you appreciate all the knowledge that an older person can share, given encouragement.

Doris Lessing, the Nobel Prize-winning author has died aged 94.

At the age of 30, she began writing for a profession, although her debut novel The Grass is Singing was not published until 1950. She made her breakthrough with The Golden Notebook in 1962.

Born in 1919, Doris Lessing's best-known works include The Golden Notebook, Memoirs of a Survivor and The Summer Before the Dark.

The Swedish Academy said the Golden Notebook was seen as "a pioneering work" that "belongs to the handful of books that informed the 20th Century view of the male-female relationship".  On winning the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy described Lessing as an "epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny".

The content of her other novels ranged from semi-autobiographical African experiences to social and political struggle, psychological thrillers and science fiction. Harper Collins published her last novel, Mara and Dann,  in 1999, which makes her 80 years old at the time.

She became the oldest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature when in 2007 she won the award for her life's work aged 88.

The figures add up to fifty years of writing, in itself, a remarkable feat. I made a late start so I'll never achieve a similar target. Nor will I reach such heights of acclaim. My first book, Still Rock Water, on the sidebar at the right, begins with the relationship between a domineering man and woman who wants to please, who believes that everything she does will influence someone for the better and that a vow should never be broken. Yet, fete separates her from all she holds dear.

Writing runs in my family. Random Romance, a branch of Random House, will publish my sister, Virginia Taylor's first novel, available next month.: Dr. No Commitment. Virginia is the clever one of three sisters. She's charming, witty and sensible, whereas I acted the role of nonconformist. Virginia worked toward acquiring an agent, who submitted her work to various publishers. At the same time, Virginia received acclaim from many writing competitions. But, if we were all the same, it would be a dull world.

Gone are the days when someone could be described like Doris Lessing as 'an uninhibited and outspoken novelist who shattered convention, embarking on dizzying and at times stultifying literary talent.' Rest in peace, sister in spirit.

I carry on blogging because of the burning desire to do so, backed up by many thoughtful comments.

In the UK, a leading public health expert has urged government ministers to lower the age of consent for sex to 15. The president of the Faculty of Public Health suggested the move would make it easier for 15-year-olds to get sexual health advice from the NHS. Official figures point to nearly a third of teenagers having sex before the present age of consent of 16.

This is a contentious issue. It seems to me that youngsters mature a lot earlier than they did in the 50s when I was a young teen. I looked like a young lady, but inside I had no idea how to handle the feelings struggling to surface.
Nowadays, youngsters watch singing stars flaunting their sexuality with suggestive moves. Immature minds can't be blamed for assuming this is normal behavior.

But, has there been a significant change in the amount of young people having sex in the past 50 years? If so, reducing the age of consent might be the most sensible way to deal with it.

In the past, the age of consent for a sexual union was a matter for the family to decide, or a tribal custom. In most traditional societies, this coincided with signs of puberty, menstruation for a woman and pubic hair for a man.

Reliable data for when people would actually marry is very difficult to find. In England for example, records involve only those who left property after their death. The records are rare and rarely state the participants' ages.  The first recorded age-of-consent law dates to 1275, in England, as part of the rape law, a statute, Westminster 1, made it a misdemeanor to ravish a maiden within age, which at the time was 12 years of age, whether with or without her consent.

In the 12th century Gratian, the influential founder of Canon law in medieval Europe, accepted age of puberty for marriage to be between 12 and 14, but acknowledged consent to be meaningful if the children were older than 7. Some authorities said consent could take place earlier. Marriage would then be valid as long as neither of the two parties annulled the marital agreement before reaching puberty, or if they had already consummated the marriage.

The American colonies followed the English tradition, and the law was more of a guide. For example, Mary Hathaway (Virginia, 1689) was only 9 when she was married to William Williams. Sir Edward Coke (England, 17th century) made it clear that the marriage of girls under 12 was normal, and the age at which a girl who was a wife was eligible for a dower from her husband's estate was 9.

In the 16th century, a small number of Italian and German states set the minimum age for sexual intercourse for girls at 12 years. Towards the end of the 18th century, other European countries also began to enact similar laws. The first French Constitution of 1791 established the minimum age at 11 years. Portugal, Spain, Denmark and the Swiss cantons, initially set the minimum age at 10–12 years.

Nowadays, the age of consent is the age at which a young person is legally able to understand and agree to consensual sex. In most countries, it is illegal for somebody to have sex with an underage person. Although some young people feel they are mature enough to engage in a sexual relationship, others lack the emotional development to deal with this or to feel confident enough to say no.

How do you feel about this? Should a government reduce the age of consent?

In my co-written Higher Ground past apocalyptic series, the sixteen-year-old heroine is free to mature at her own pace. However, thugs roam the forest covering the Britland and sometimes her friends are not close by.

New mothers in deprived areas of England are to be offered financial incentives to encourage them to breastfeed their babies. What! The natural bond between mother and baby is no longer acceptable? Next, women will insist that test tubes take over the whole business of producing offspring. Okay, the new mothers need to learn that the practice is acceptable and beneficial. Maybe men should be consulted about this too.

Funded through collaboration between government and the medical research sector, new mothers will be offered the vouchers, which they can then use in supermarkets and high street shops. To qualify for the full £200 of rewards, the women will have to breastfeed until six months. Midwives and health visitors will be asked to verify whether the women are breastfeeding. Hopefully, these experts will teach and encourage the mothers too.

The areas chosen have low breastfeeding rates. On average just one in four mothers are breastfeeding by the six- to eight-week mark compared with a national average of 55%.

Most of us from an earlier generation know breast milk is best for your baby, and the benefits of breastfeeding extend well beyond basic nutrition. In addition to containing all the vitamins and nutrients your baby needs in the first six months of life, breast milk is packed with disease-fighting substances that protect your baby from illness. Numerous studies from around the world have shown that stomach viruses, lower respiratory illnesses, ear infections, and meningitis occur less often in breastfed babies and are less severe when they do happen.

Scientists think that immune factors in breast milk provide a layer of protection to a baby's intestinal tract. Without this protection, inflammation can develop and the wall of the intestine can become leaky. This allows undigested proteins to cross the gut where they can cause an allergic reaction and other health problems.

Babies who are fed a formula based on cow's milk or soy tend to have more allergic reactions than breastfed babies. They don't get the natural layer of protection, so they're more vulnerable to inflammation, allergies, and other eventual health issues.

Maybe the hard men in the chosen areas will discourage their partners from breastfeeding. Everyone's thinking will need adjustment.

Back in the 60s when I breastfed my babies, the 'flower power' era encouraged everything natural. I'd feed them in public under a shawl. Nobody was any the wiser and couldn't take offence. My husband encouraged me to breastfeed and sometimes expressed the wish to indulge himself. I think the desire is fairly normal in a man. He wants to return to the time when he was happiest and recapture that early bond.

With unnatural practices such as breast augmentation, the role of this part of a woman's shape has stepped away from its primary importance. Men admire women with large breasts—for a reason. Large breasts signify lactation.  Yet both sexes seem to have forgotten the primal reason for their infatuation for breasts.

Detention sheets describing Beatle John Lennon's schoolboy misdemeanors are being put up for sale. Online bidding for the detention sheets and other items of Beatles memorabilia starts at TrackAuction.com on 22 November. Last month, a black knitted tie, given to a fan by John Lennon, has sold for more than £3,000 at an auction in Liverpool.

Teachers from Liverpool's Quarry Bank High School for Boys in the UK wrote that 15-year-old Lennon was punished for fighting in class and sabotage. The documents reveal that on two occasions Lennon received three detentions in one day. Other reasons given by his teachers for punishment include nuisance, shoving and just no interest whatsoever.

I can empathize with this. Schoolwork didn't interest me in the slightest. I couldn't wait to escape. My son acted the same in class in the 60s and 70s too. A test revealed he had a very high IQ. So let that be a lesson to us all. Some bad behavior is a sign of lurking genius. Not all, of course.

The two school documents from 1955 were rescued by a teacher in the 1970s. He had been told to burn all of the books in a storage room at the school ready for a new teacher. He noticed the name on several pages and tore them out as keepsakes, later giving away several sheets. Some were also destroyed in a chemical accident. But the few sheets he kept will be offered for sale and expected to be sold for up to £3,000 each at auction. The very messy sheets have been authenticated by Lennon's close school friend, Pete Shotton, who wrote a book John Lennon: In My Life. See more on the Lennon auction here.

Lennon went on to meet Paul McCartney in 1957 and together they formed the Beatles, who had their first hit in late 1962 with the song Love Me Do. That kick-started a career which brought fame and fortune and songs that have influenced generations of musicians since. Sadly, Lennon's career ended at the age of 40, when he was shot dead outside his New York apartment on 8 December 1980.

Same thing happened to my son, who died at a similar age after an accident. I read books about palmistry when he was a teenager. When I looked at his life-line, I was staggered to see it came to an abrupt end half way along his palm. This shocked me at first, but then I came to the conclusion that I must be wrong. Sadly, this was not the case. Perhaps some people are predestined to die early. But that's another subject, and I have no blinding conclusions to make. One thing I can pass on, though. Believe in your unruly children. Love them no matter what heartache they put you through. This is the memory you will cherish.

Many cultures are ignoring the traditional belief about the importance of the first four years of a child's life. They're casting aside the time for building close ties so the child can learn about behavior, speech and social values. I believe youngsters need to be held, cuddled and comforted after each tumble.

Unlike the USA, most children in England go to nursery at the age of three or four before starting school in the September following their fourth birthday. Legally they have to be in full-time education by the term after their fifth birthday.

But, according to the chairman of Ofsted, the UK Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, children should start school when they are two years old to stop the most disadvantaged from slipping behind.  Their recent report found that children from really poor backgrounds are not ready to learn and many five-year-olds are still 19 months behind their more affluent peers.

MP Baroness Sally Morgan believes that this ‘big, bold, brave’ move of schooling two-year-old children is needed to tackle the under-achievement of under-fives from the poorest areas across the country. 'Weak parenting, low educational attainment of parents, poor diet, poor housing and so on—the gap between affluent and disadvantaged is greatest in that group.’

Stay-at-home mothers are angry over other parliamentary comments about being an optional part of the labor force. They think it is more important to encourage unemployed young people into work than coaxing mothers into leaving their young children at home or in care.

Children are our future, but so many people are exploiting their innocence for their own ends. Pornography and sport fighting have gained the spotlight recently.

A Dutch organization for children's rights created a computer-generated 10-year-old girl Filipino girl named 'Sweetie' to entice them to ask for child porn. The Dutch chapter of the group Terre des Hommes then posed as her on internet chat rooms to conduct a sting operation to unmask webcam child-sex tourists. They were quickly approached by more than 20,000 predators from 71 countries, and yesterday, they gave the identities of 1,000 to Interpol.

Lately, fighting in the style of Prankration, a blend of boxing and wrestling but with scarcely any rules, has become popular in America. As MMA classes pop up around the country, some catering for children as young as five, there are concerns about the safety risks of young children taking part in such a violent contact sport. It is estimated that three million boys and girls, some as young as five-years-old launch themselves at each other weekly across the nation engaged in Pankration, some wearing no head protection and throwing punches boasting gloves little more than one-inch thick. They cry when they are hit and, belittled by competitive parents, sob when they lose their fight.

And a final story about separation comes from China, where thousands of parents are sending children as young as three away to boarding school. Despite China's one child policy, there are boarding kindergartens in Shanghai, Beijing, and other major Chinese cities. While no official figures are available, it's estimated that the number of boarding toddlers runs into thousands nationwide. In traditional Chinese culture many grandparents live with the family, and sometimes there are four grandparents, two parents and just one child in a home. In a culture where family pride depends overwhelmingly on a child's success or failure, some parents worry that the grandparents will spoil the child. However, many kindergarten's are closing as Chinese parents are now starting to realize that it's important to spend more time with their kids when they are very young, because they are learning and it's a very important stage of growth.

The Halloween News this morning features The skeleton Lady of The Day of the Dead, who has been a fixture at fiestas for a century. Mexico's elegant and classy "Skeleton Lady" is even inspiring some movie and rock stars in the U.S. to don Halloween costumes based on the macabre figure. Nowadays, it is a busy time of year for make-up artists, who are increasingly losing out to computer-generated graphics, as everyone wants to be transformed into a monster for the night. Theme parks and film studios in the US take advantage by hosting "fright nights" and turning hundreds of actors into zombies.

While the whole of America goes Halloween crazy with activities that include trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, I have to wonder why children like telling scary stories, and adults watch horror films.

I guess there is something in the human nature that is fascinated with dreadful things that could happen. When they return to their normal life, they feel secure. The children of a bygone era would listen enthralled to Grimm's Fairy Tales.

But how did this macabre, extreme festival of Halloween begin?

Halloween or Hallowe'en,  (All Hallows' Evening or All Hallows' Eve), is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (or hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.

According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan Celtic roots. Other academics maintain that it originated independently and has solely Christian roots.

Today's Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries, some of which have pagan roots, and others which may be rooted in Celtic Christianity. An academic folklorist, writes that the sacred and the religious are a fundamental context for understanding Halloween in Northern Ireland, where an uneasy truce exists between customs and beliefs associated with Christianity and those associated with religions that were Irish before Christianity arrived. Samhain/Calan Gaeaf marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter—the darker half of the year when spirits or fairies could drift easily into our world and were particularly active.

In modern Ireland, Scotland, Mann and Wales, the festival included mumming and guising, which goes back at least as far as the 16th century. This involved people going house-to-house in costume or disguise, reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. The period from the harvest season until All Saints Day provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities from wandering souls of the departed.

North American almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was celebrated there. The Puritans of New England, for example, maintained strong opposition to Halloween, and it was not until the mass Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that it was brought to North America in earnest. Confined to the immigrant communities during the mid-19th century, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and by the first decade of the 20th century it was being celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial and religious backgrounds.

I'm inclined to think the whole thing is silly. But take no notice of me. I'm a spoil-sport. I never indulged, even as a child. In my quiet area of Hertfordshire, England, there are no children knocking on the door, demanding sweets or trying to scare an old lady. I'm sure you have your own ideas of the practice. Perhaps you love spooky stories.

If you really want to frighten yourself, Gateway, a short story by Melissa Massey-Moroni, the writer who made my wonderful book trailers below, is released today.
Take a look at the Getaway book trailer: http://youtu.be/CFeFZGt005w
On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Getaway-ebook/dp/B00GBHQVY0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383180702&sr=1-1&keywords=mel+massey

Women in Saudi Arabia are taking part in a mass driving protest today to challenge the kingdom's ban on female driving. The authorities have increased warnings to women not to defy the order.

The interior ministry has reiterated that anyone flouting the ban is likely to face unspecified punishment. The activists behind the campaign believe the mood of the public, including men, is changing to support lifting of the ban.

I don't believe one country should interfere with another's traditional way of life, but in this instance, the women are standing up for themselves, despite threats of unspecified punishment. They're brave and strong.

In a historic move last week, Saudi Arabia passed a legal ban on domestic violence and other forms of abuse against women. The law is the first of its kind in a nation that has been called one of the worst places for women to live. Fathers sell teenage girls to men in their 70s, 80s.

In conservative Saudi Arabia, a woman's life is not her own; she is nothing but a legal minor. Every woman must have a male guardian. Until she is married, the father takes the role, but other family, even sons, can assume the guardian status.
To fit in with this tradition, Saudi women need permission from the guardian for certain types of healthcare, to study, work, travel, and marry.

In Saudi Arabia's sex segregated education system, the facilities available to women are more limited compared to the boys. According to the Saudi official policy, the purpose of educating a girl is to bring her up in a proper Islamic way so as to perform her duty in life, be an ideal and successful housewife and a good mother, ready to do things which suit her nature such as teaching, nursing and medical treatment.

Nowadays, Saudi women still depend on private drivers or male guardians to move around in the country. Let's hope they can take this one step toward independence.  If only the 'world could live as one', allowing these women to be free to make their own choices.

Just how important are women in society? Well, for a start, they human race wouldn't have reached this stage with women to give birth to future generations. Maybe that will change in the future if science has any say in it. What about women's role, their leadership, their teaching and acting as a role model for the children? Invaluable. If future generations are grown in an artificial womb, someone else will tutor the youngsters—someone without the love and bond created by natural childbirth.

I often wonder how present circumstances came about. After all, men and women were created different, each with a separate role, but equal in importance. Yet, nowadays, men take the lead and have the say about the future of society—war, bombs, and mass genocide. Would things be any different with women at the helm? Let's look at one society from the past.

In February, Archaeologists in Peru discovered a pyramid-like temple at the ancient site of El Paraiso, near the capital, Lima. Entry to the rectangular structure, estimated to be up to 5,000 years old, was via a narrow passageway. The temple walls were made of stone and covered in fine yellow clay which also contained some traces of red paint. At its centre, the archaeologists from Peru's Ministry of Culture found a hearth which they believe was used to burn ceremonial offerings. The smoke is thought to have allowed the priests to connect with their gods.

With 10 ruins, El Paraiso is one of the biggest archaeological sites in central Peru and has been under excavation since 1981. The settlement once supported a farming and fishing community numbering hundreds of people.

In June, archaeologists unearthed a royal tomb from about 1,200 years ago. The discovery north of Lima and close to the modern-day Ayacucho in the Andes, sheds new light on the Wari empire, which ruled in the Andes before the rise of the better-known Inca civilization.

Archaeologists found more than 60 skeletons inside the tomb, including three Wari queens buried with gold and silver jewelry and brilliantly-painted ceramics. Many mummified bodies were found sitting upright—indicating royalty. The fact that most of the skeletons were of women and the very rich grave goods, shows this was a tomb of the royal elite and that also changes our point of view on the position of the women in the Wari culture, which thrived from the 7th to 10th centuries AD, and conquered all of what is now Peru before a mysterious and dramatic decline. Little is known about the Wari culture, as they did not appear to leave a written record.

The news this morning reveals a new find of two mummies, an adult and a child, more than 1,000 years old. The child is believed to have been an offering to the gods and may have been buried alive after the adult's death. The mummies are squatting and are fully dressed wrapped in rope. It is the third intact find among more than 70 tombs uncovered in the Huaca Pucllana tomb.

We can only speculate on the circumstances of these deaths. It seems that little has changed in the way of people's cruelty over the centuries. But it's the interaction between men and woman that holds my interest. Women seemed to play an important role back then.

Throughout the present-day world, the gap between men and women has narrowed slightly in the past year in most countries, according to a new World Economic Forum report.

Iceland, Finland and Norway top the list of 136 nations, based on political participation, economic equality and rights like education and health. Featured in the top twenty countries, Ireland is sixth, New Zealand seventh, and the UK eighteenth with Canada 20. No mention of the USA in this list.
The Middle East and North Africa were the only regions not to improve in the past year, with Yemen at the bottom.

It seems we've got a long way to go before a balance is struck between men and women nowadays.