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First post learning 23 things at UL

The purpose of this post is to reflect on the learning process of Rudai 23, an educational resource of UL, to upgrade IT skills among interested students. I have found this useful so far, as it has taken some of the mystery from the world of blogging. It is remarkable the number of people who talk authoritatively about tech related matters but whose in depth knowledge is limited. I hope to use this blog system as a means of identifying sources of information, and getting responses to my PhD research on the interconnections between housing design, as driven by public policy, and the demographic trends evident in the west of declining population. But first I have to figure out how to set up and operate a blog. This type of online, self paced learning is very useful, even though one is always afraid of hitting a blank wall and of having no-one to whom one can address a question.
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I am at present engaging, or at last commencing, in PhD research at UL. The thesis point at which I start is that the nature of the housing that we design has a significant effect on demographic trends. I believe that declining demography, as in declining birth rates, (in all developed European countries now below replacement level), is probably the most pressing issue that these countries will face over the remainder of the century. It is exacerbated to some extent by the decline in cultural confidence which is a mark of the modern "west", that area of the world formerly defined by Christendom and later by the "enlightenment". I am in the process of looking at the decline in those countries which first exhibited the phenomenon of hyper aging, which is defined as having a proportion of the over 65's in the population greater than 30%. The three countries which are at or imminently approaching this level are Germany, Italy and Japan, three very different cultures
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