But in 1940, while acting alongside Jimmy Stewart and Judy Garland in an MGM musical, the 26-year-old starlet began proving that she had much more to offer the world than her beautiful face. Incensed at the unfolding horrors of World War II, Lamarr started spending her free time devising inventions to assist the war effort, including a radio-controlled submarine missile-guidance system to help the U.S. Navy. Wireless technologies from her innovations are still used today, in Bluetooth, GPS, cellphone networks and more.

A new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes sets out to rewrite America's memory of Lamarr. Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World, chronicles her life and inventive skills, which, until recently, went undiscovered. As the Los Angeles Times writes: "put in modern context, it's like Farah Fawcett developing Google's proprietary search algorithm."

Rhodes is the author or editor of 22 books, including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won a Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award. He has received numerous fellowships for research and writing, including grants from the Ford, Guggenheim, MacArthur, and Alfred P. Sloan foundations. He lives in Northern California, where SecondAct caught up with him for a chat.

SA: This book is a bit of a departure for you. You've spent decades writing hard nonfiction about war and munitions, and now you've written about a movie star. What drew you to write a book about Hedy Lamarr?
RR: I had just finished the fourth volume on the nuclear age -- I'd spent 30 years on one subject -- and was trying to decide what to do next, something different. I was working with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation on a list of 20th century American inventors and was surprised to see her name on it. It was revelatory to learn more about her -- and I decided that had to be my next book. It was fun to do.

SA: Why would a 26-year-old starlet get started in inventing?
RR: There are two answers. One is that Hedy's father, when she was a child in Vienna, would explain to her how everything worked. When the bus would drive by, he would explain the technology that allowed it to go. They were very close. But more immediately, when she came to Hollywood in her 20s, she didn't drink or enjoy loud parties, and she had to find some way to fill her time between jobs. So she set up a room in her house that was sort of an inventor's corner, with a drafting table, and she spent her spare time in there.

SA: But there also were emotional reasons for her wanting to get involved in inventing.
RR: Yes, she had just adopted a little boy when World War II broke out. Germans were torpedoing passenger ships, and she was particularly horrified when they sank a ship carrying child refugees. She decided then and there to try and do something about it -- and to donate her time to the war effort.

SA: It sounds like she was a very sharp young woman -- and kept her ears open during her early marriage to an Austrian munitions manufacturer. That must have been an education for her.
RR: Fritz Mandl was very active in the early pro-Nazi war efforts, and Hedy learned a great deal from sitting at dinner parties with him and other munitions experts. She must have been exceptionally bright to retain all those details. They probably thought of her as a trophy wife, but she was keeping mental notes.

SA: And then she fled her marriage, met film producer Louis B. Mayer and arrived in Hollywood, where she almost instantly became a star. Was she conflicted about her dueling desires to be a star and also be taken seriously for her brains?
RR: It was a struggle all her life. It bothered her that people couldn't get past her face. She said once, "My beauty is my curse." I mean, here is someone who played chess with Man Ray but was hired to play roles like Tondelayo, the sultry African native girl. She famously said, "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

SA: She sounds like a woman who knew her own mind and was very ambitious.
RR: Her husband, John Loder, who was the father of her two children, tells the story about how he moved in with her, and after a month she gave him a bill for his share of the cooking, housekeeping and such.

SA: I guess the message was "you don't have to take care of me, but I'm sure as hell not going to take care of you."
RR: [laughs] Exactly.

SA: So Lamarr's main invention involved creating a jam-proof signaling system.
RR: Yes, for torpedoes, which were notoriously inaccurate; they rarely hit their targets because their signals could be jammed. She collaborated with the avant-garde composer George Antheil, whom she met at a dinner party, on new technology that would allow for frequency hopping. As soon as it hit the Navy files, it was classified as "top secret," and it remained that way until the '70s, when a lot of things were declassified.

SA: And it became, in the '90s, one of the main technologies used for the development of wireless and cellular phones?
RR: Cellphone developers realized it would cost them slightly more to use Hedy's system than another system, so they went with that one. However, wireless phones in your home use her method of frequency hopping.

SA: And she never made a dollar off her invention?
RR: No, but she'd given it away anyway. It was developed for the war effort, so she didn't want to profit from it.

SA: At least she was finally acknowledged for her contribution in 1997, with an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
RR: Yes, and when she learned of it, in typical Hedy Lamarr fashion, her response was, "It's about time."

Keep reading: How 'Mary Tyler Moore' Became 'Sex in the City'

The number of Americans dying from hepatitis C-related diseases nearly doubled from 1999 to 2007, prompting the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to call for anyone between 47 and 67 to get tested for the liver-destroying illness.

One in 30 boomers has been infected -- and many don't even know it, according to the report. Yet all it takes to detect the often-curable disease is a simple blood test. "The CDC views hepatitis C as an unrecognized health crisis for the country," says Dr. John W. Ward, the center's hepatitis chief, "and we believe the time is now for a bold response."

First identified in 1989, hepatitis C is the top cause of liver transplants in the U.S. New drugs introduced last year, however, can cure about 75 percent of infections, and prevent many of the 15,000 yearly deaths from related diseases.

CDC officials say the new measure calling for one-time blood tests could lead 800,000 more middle-aged Americans to get treatment, and save more than 120,000 lives. The cost of identifying and treating those carrying Hep C will cost about the same as detecting and treating cervical cancer or high cholesterol, Ward tells The Washington Post. But first, people need to know if they are sick.

Are you at risk? You might be if:

You were born between 1945 and 1965. Baby boomers make up more than three-quarters of the 3.2 million Americans infected with the blood-borne virus. And they are five times more likely than other adults to have the disease. "With increasingly effective treatments now available, we can prevent tens of thousands of deaths from hepatitis C," CDC director Thomas R. Frieden says in the report. About 3 percent of boomers test positive for the virus, which now kills more Americans than AIDS.

You haven't been tested -- or just can't remember. Almost three-quarters of Americans between 47 and 67 have never been tested or are unsure if they have been tested for Hep C, according to a recent survey by the American Gastroenterological Association, which makes one of the hepatitis C drugs.

You didn't think you were at risk. Past hepatitis C guidelines recommended testing mainly high-risk people, such as health workers and IV drug users. According to webmd.com, health officials says most infections likely occurred in the '70s and '80s, when many boomers were in their teens or early 20s. The CDC now suspects a broader range of activities, ranging from sharing toothbrushes to snorting cocaine, spread the disease. About a quarter of infected boomers, however, don't remember engaging in risky behavior, according to the CDC report. Many people not only did not know they were at risk simply for their age group, but also didn't realize the disease is treatable. "Identifying these hidden infections early will allow more baby boomers to receive care and treatment before they develop life-threatening liver disease," says Kevin Fenton, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS.

Your were unaware that common activities spread the infection. Health officials say people could catch the infection through tattoos, piercings, shared razor blades and even manicures. People who underwent blood transfusions or organ transplants before 1992, when donated blood and organs were not yet screened for the virus, can also be at risk.

You thought hepatitis C screening was part of your annual physical, or that you would know by now if you were sick. Although the virus can scar the liver and lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer, early symptoms are rare or nonexistent. Dr. Ryan Ford, a hepatitis specialist at Emory University, says some boomers learned of their infection when they donated blood or had their blood tested during physical exams, such as for life insurance policies. Screening is not part of most routine health physicals. If you want a Hep C blood test, you need to ask for it.

Keep reading: Forget the Scale. Watch These Numbers Instead.

But what can be said about Jobs and Zuckerberg as people, and leaders? While Zuckerberg considered Jobs a mentor, and Jobs, before his death last fall, expressed his admiration of Zuckerberg, both have independently exhibited tendencies to hold grudges -- just one of several personal and managerial traits the two leaders shared. They also are different in many ways, some of which may demonstrate a generational shift in the way bosses will lead in the 21st century.

Here we examine some of the similarities and differences between Jobs' and Zuckerberg's leadership styles:

Similarities

Though his estate was worth $3 billion at the time of his death, Jobs put making the highest quality products in the world above anything else. And while Facebook's CEO is poised to become unbelievably wealthy with the company's IPO, his primary goal has been to connect people all over the world. In Facebook's SEC filing, a 2,200-word letter from Zuckerberg begins: "Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission -- to make the world more open and connected."

Coldness: Jobs was unapologetic about his brusque management style. "If something sucks, I tell people to their face," he is quoted as saying in the Isaacson biography. "It's my job to be honest. I know what I'm talking about, and I usually turn out to be right."

Both current and former Facebook employees have described Zuckerberg as robotic, and in an interview with The New Yorker, he even called himself awkward. In the workplace, this detachment can translate into both frustration and great results in that Zuckerberg is fearless about trying new things, writes Facebook employee Andrew Bosworth in an internal memo cited in a Wall Street Journal article.

Hard-driving style: In a well-documented story dating to before the iPod's launch, Jobs demanded that the music player be slimmed down. Engineers maintained there was no way to reduce its size, so Jobs took the prototype and dropped it into a fish tank. Air bubbles seeped from the device, ending the conversation by showing the empty space still inside.

Similarly colorful stories of Zuckerberg's demands have yet to surface, but former Facebook employee Yishan Wong called him demanding, "with a monomaniacal focus on making Facebook succeed in its mission." Zuckerberg has little tolerance for others' feelings while meeting his goals for the company, Wong says.

Differences

Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has yet to fail in any major way and show how he would react. It's rare -- if impossible -- for an innovator to hit every mark, every time, and this perfect record may leave some investors gun-shy about Facebook's high stock price.

Products vs. people: In terms of revenue, Apple is foremost a hardware company. That's because Jobs had a product-first sensibility and solved problems consumers didn't even know they had. Apple's devices and software are often so refined that users don't have to bother reading the product manuals.

Facebook, on the other hand, takes a people-first approach, continually adding functions and services that keep users interconnected in a variety of ways. This development approach, which Facebook calls "The Hacker Way" in its SEC filing, can make for a feature-rich experience, but it can also cause usability to suffer when new features are half-baked or too advanced for people to adopt easily.

Privacy vs. openness: Prior to the publication of Steve Jobs last fall, much of Jobs' personal life was a mystery -- almost as secretive as the company's unreleased products. While much of his life has been laid bare, it's important to remember that Jobs decided to cooperate with the production of the book only after it became clear that he was dying.

Zuckerberg has been more open about his personal life. This is partly a reflection of the media-saturated era he operates in, as well as the nature of his business. While Zuckerberg's Facebook profile is set to private, he does periodically make public posts and is forthcoming with details of his personal life, whether publicly pledging to donate much of his fortune to charity or sharing his own dietary issues.

This story originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com. 

Keep reading: Debating the Peak Age for Entrepreneurship
Steve Jobs Lauded Like Rock Star

Programmer jobs in tech havens like Silicon Valley may be dominated by younger employees, but there's plenty of work to go around, and plenty of training opportunities -- if you know where to look.

Federal government economists forecast that software programmers, web developers and similar jobs will be among the fastest-growing occupations in the country through 2020, presenting ample opportunity for the technology-inclined of all ages. The number of software developers, for example, is projected to grow 30 percent by 2020, more than twice the average, according to the 2012-2013 Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in late March.

In its annual Best Jobs listing, U.S. News & World Report ranks software developer as the hottest tech career of 2012, with a current median salary of $87,790. Web developer came in third, with a median salary of $75,660 and computer programmer fifth, with a median salary of $71,380.

Many software or web developer jobs require four-year degrees. But the academic standards for some positions aren't as stringent. The Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Labor Department's extensive O.Net careers database are good starting places to research specific tech jobs, and the education or training that's required.

Once you've decided on a direction, here are some possibilities for getting the training you need, online or in person, including a few options especially suited to midlife workers and career changers:

1. Online degree programs. Tech trade schools, such as ITT Technical Institute and DeVry University, offer online associate and bachelor's degrees in subjects such as web design, information systems, and network systems administration.

[Related: 9 Ways Midlife Job Seekers Can Be More Tech Savvy]

2. Certificate programs. Some community colleges and technology trade schools offer certificates of mastery in subjects such as web page development or programming. Students who attend the Computer Institute at Miami Dade College, for example, can earn a Microsoft Office specialist certification or take courses in web page development, digital imaging and programming with .net.

3. Boot camps. Private training companies, such as NetCom Learning, offer single- and multi-day training for individuals or groups on popular programming languages and other subjects at locations throughout the country. NetCom's Ready to Run schedule lists open classes beginning in May and June.

4. Online tutorials. Sites such as Code Year and Lynda.com offer online tutorials that people who aren't interested in a degree or certificate can use to teach themselves to code. Startup Code Academy launched Code Year in January, offering free weekly lessons on specific programming languages. Current lessons cover JavaScript, with previous tutorials on CSS, HTML and more available in the archives. This Mashable video explains more. Lynda.com offers 77,000 text and video tutorials on everything from basic computer skills to Drupal, Joomla, HTML5, and other website programming languages. Some material is free; otherwise, subscriptions start at $25 a month.

5. Plus 50. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) created the "Ageless Learning" initiative to make it easier for people 50 and older to train or retrain for new careers or volunteer work. Check this page on the AACC website for a list of participating U.S. community colleges, and then use the links to the schools' respective websites to find information on course offerings. For example, Shoreline Community College in Shoreline, Wash., offers classes in website design and computer skills.

6. MIT Opencourseware. Massachusetts Institute of Technology uses the website to share syllabi from courses offered in the past few years with the general public. Available tech courses include introduction to computer programming and practical programming in C. Depending on the class, you could have access to lecture notes, assignments (and solutions), online textbooks, projects and examples, exams, and study groups. Everything is free, but you can make a donation. Starting this fall, MIT and Harvard will offer interactive classes on multiple subjects free to anyone in the world through a nonprofit venture called edX. Listen to this recent NPR interview with MIT President Susan Hockfield for details.

[Related: 6 Things to Know About Modern Master's Programs]

7. Other online classes. A handful of internet startups also offer college-level courses, some for credit. As you'd expect from web-based learning ventures, a lot of what's offered is tech-related. Udacity, co-founded by a Stanford professor, has university-level classes on computer programming, web application engineering and programming languages. Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan are working with a startup named Coursera to offer more than 40 free, graded classes in a range of subjects, including game theory, natural language processing, and coming soon, software engineering for web-based services. Another website, Udemy, lets anyone take or build free or paid online courses. The site's computer courses include programming in Ajax, Python and Ruby on Rails, as well as more basic courses on web design and building mobile apps.

Read more: Browse the SecondAct Career Center

"While Americans recycle more than we used to, the volume of stuff we throw away has exponentially increased," Yeager says. "I wanted the book to be practical, offering solutions for ways to reuse everyday items, but I also want it to resonate with people on a bigger level. It's not just about interesting, quirky ways of reusing pantyhose; it's about thinking of all the stuff you throw away and becoming mindful of that. If you decide to reuse a piece of aluminum foil, that won't make you rich or save the environment, but it will instill in you an ethic of thrift. It may make you stop and think."

For instance, one reader wrote to Yeager and told him that reading the book had led her to make a small but significant change in her morning routine. She used to use a plastic bag to clean up after her dog when she walked him every morning, and then, on her way back into the house, she'd pick up the morning paper, which was always delivered in a plastic bag. After reading Don't Throw That Away, the reader realized that by reversing her process, she could pick up the newspaper first and use its plastic bag to clean up after her dog, eliminating the use of one plastic bag each day.

"If you can build reuse into everyday practice like that, you can make a big difference," Yeager says. "This book is about making incremental changes that make you stop and think, and they can add up to big savings economically as well as environmentally."

The incremental changes Yeager recommends range from easy no-brainers to creative and quirky solutions. And since it's an e-book, you can easily search the index for an item you want to reuse (packing peanuts, masking tape, fireplace ashes), and one click will take you to the options for repurposing that item.

Here are eight everyday items and Yeager's interesting reuses -- try them at home or use as inspiration for your own repurposing ideas.

1. Cereal bags. Rather than throwing away the plastic bag inside the cereal box when the cereal is gone, Yeager recommends storing leftovers in it in the refrigerator or freezer.

2. Eggshells. These are perfect for starting seedling plants indoors, as are cardboard egg containers and empty toilet paper rolls, Yeager writes. When the seedlings are ready to be transplanted outdoors, these biodegradable items can be ground up and added to the soil as fertilizer.

[Related: 8 Tips for (Really) Frugal Living]

3. Onion bags. Don't throw away the plastic mesh bags that onions come in. Instead, "stuff them inside one another and use them as a handy scrubbing pad in the kitchen," Yeager says.

4. Plastic shopping bags. Savvy consumers can find endless ways to reuse these bags, which cost consumers about $4 million each year and take 500 years to decompose. One of the best reuses Yeager discovered was by a woman who crocheted a reusable plastic shopping bag out of dozens of the disposable ones.

5. Charcoal. Among other uses, leftover charcoal can be used in the bottom of a flower vase containing cut flowers to keep the water clean and clear and make the flowers last longer.

6. Pantyhose. The "queen of all repurposed items," old nylon pantyhose have numerous practical uses, Yeager says. For instance, they're perfect for shining shoes, removing pet hair and lint from clothing and upholstery, and, when combined with lemon rinds and a little cedar sawdust, they protect stored clothing from insects, taking the place of mothballs.

7. Spoiled yogurt. Don't try to eat spoiled yogurt, but you can use it to make "a soothing face mask," Yeager writes. Just blend one cup of spoiled yogurt with spare cucumber peels and "a dollop of honey if you really want to get salon-fancy," he says. "Apply liberally to your face and leave it on for thirty minutes before washing it off."

8. Soap slivers. Save the slivers of bar soap that you might normally throw away, and when you have several saved, melt them in a lightly oiled dish in the microwave. Yeager recommends microwaving them for 30 seconds at a time until they start to melt together. When melted, stir them together and when the mixture is cool enough to touch, mold them by hand into what Yeager calls "dirty snowballs." They may not look like new bars of soap, but they'll "get the job done," Yeager says.

SecondAct Asks: This list is just a start. What do you reuse or repurpose? Tell us about it in the comments section below and we might feature your ideas in a future post.

Keep reading: Smart Money: How the Recession Made Frugality Cool
To Buy or Not to Buy?
Love a Good Bargain? Follow These Frugal Pros

It just doesn't work, does it? Surely the recession has had a huge impact -- an especially traumatic one for the 12.5 million American workers who are still unemployed. But it just doesn't feel like it's made the imprint on the national psyche that the Great Depression did.

No national orgy of sock-darning and home auto repair. No piling into rickety SUVs in a mass exodus to go west (perhaps this time to North Dakota, where unemployment is just 3 percent). Certainly no shuttering of luxury retailers, which have thrived over the last few years.

And yet the recession has made saving money a little more legit. Something you can admit to in mixed company. As William Safire wrote when a new word -- frugalista -- was coined: "Concerned about your budget in this year's market debacle? Sharpening your pencil and tightening your belt, foraging for bargains but not altogether abandoning good food and good screens? Join the frugalistas!"

We may, slowly, be climbing out of the recession. (Economists say it ended in 2009 -- but economists tend to have tenured jobs at big universities.) Yet the cry to "join the frugalistas" remains. And that's because it's not just about money.

It's About Health

Compare the frugalista manifesto with what health experts keep telling us. For an example, check out the work of longevity expert Dan Buettner, who joined up with National Geographic to study "Blue Zones," societies around the world where people live a long time. Buettner came up with nine "lifestyle habits" that can lead to longer, healthier lives. Several of the habits are straight out of the frugalista's playbook.

There's "move naturally" -- using your own power to get around. Not surprisingly, the walking shoe and the bicycle are frugalista icons. According to Buettner, simple things like walking instead of driving, taking the stairs and gardening can add about four years to your life. Then there are the eating habits -- don't overeat, and focus on plants. Again, aiming lower on the food chain than feedlot-fattened beef is central to frugal dining. Add in a daily glass of wine, and Buettner says you pick up eight years of life. You'll save some cash, as well.

It's About the Planet

This point would fill a book rather than a blog. But for a visual example, try the imagery of photographer Chris Jordan, who has dedicated his art to showing us ourselves through the mirror of our garbage -- from the number of mail-order catalogs we toss every three seconds to how our ugly trash kills baby birds way out in the Pacific. A glance at a few of his photos will have you chanting "reduce, reuse, recycle" for at least a month.

It's About Choices

For the consumer, our economy is no longer like the old five-and-dime, where everything had a fixed price. Instead, it's closer to airline fares, where what you pay depends on when you buy, how you buy, and -- most notably -- what's important to you.

There are choices out there, though our marketing-driven society is loath to broadcast them. You should get to set your own priorities, even fly first-class sometimes when you think it's worth it. But you can't make the choice until you know the options.

And that's the idea here -- knowing the options. It's what my weekly frugal living blog posts will explore.

Read more: To Buy Or Not To Buy

Last summer, Boland and her family took a trip to Barcelona, Spain, where she fell in love with the magical garden city known as Park Guell. She shares this report.

Best memory (above): Park Guell is truly an inspiring spot that's unlike anything I've ever seen. It dates back to 1900 when Eusebi Guell bought the hillside property to build a garden city for the wealthy and commissioned artist Antoni Gaudi to create the artwork. With its super imaginative buildings and stunning mosaics, it is definitely one of Barcelona's top three places to see. Don't miss it.

Best moment (above): My kids loved the two Hansel-and-Gretel-style gatehouses. They had a Dr. Seuss feel.

Don't miss (above): I especially loved the whimsical gold stone caves and the statue of the lady with the fruit basket. She was beautiful. I wanted to take her home and put her in my garden.

Best tip: Take water wherever you go. Barcelona in the summer is like an oven.

Best meal: An incredible potato frittata. Potatoes never tasted so good. Yum!

Most fun (above): I went crazy for this long, winding bench with its colorful glass tiles that seemed to go on for miles and miles. It, too, was designed by Gaudi and runs all along the top part of the park -- it's a gorgeous resting post in a magical park. It's fun to follow the bench and see where it leads. It's snakelike, and the tiles glisten in the scorching sun.

My Vacation is an occasional series featuring photo essays by SecondAct readers. Do you have a great travel photo you'd like to share? Submit it to travel[at]secondact.com.

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Lopez, who displaced last year's No. 1, the much-younger Lady Gaga, earned an impressive $52 million over the past 12 months. In part, that's due to her $20 million salary as a judge on Idol, which heads to its season finale showdown on Wednesday.

Like fellow American Idol judge Steven Tyler, Lopez displays a surprising, previously unseen side of her personality on the show, morphing from a glamorous hiphop diva into an earnest, supportive mentor. Two seasons on Idol, coupled with a painful split with ex-husband Marc Anthony, may have humanized J-Lo and attracted the interest of a new generation of fans. Her CD Love?, released last May, reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200, and Lopez went on to score lucrative endorsement deals with L'Oreal and Gillette. She's also become a brand, marketing a line of affordable clothing for Kohl's and an eponymous fragrance line. With 6.6 million followers on Twitter and 12 million fans on Facebook, she's the envy of a lot of younger stars as a social media force.

Incidentally, J-Lo tweeted last night in response to reports that she is leaving the show: "There is no truth to reports that say I am definitely leaving Idol. All I said was I haven't decided what I am doing next year."

Other Forty- and Fifty-Something Celebs on Forbes' List: The No. 2 spot goes to talk-show host turned multimedia entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey, 58, who's been having a rough time with her new cable TV network, yet still managed to rake in $165 million over the past year, making her the highest earner on the list. Forty-nine-year-old Tom Cruise (No.9) may have the most impressive comeback on the list: He rebounded from his 2005 couch-jumping incident and other mishaps to score a huge hit with Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, which earned $700 million worldwide. Former American Idol judge Simon Cowell, 52, has been struggling to duplicate his success with The X Factor, but he had more success as a record producer in his native England; he earned $90 million over the past year. Coming in at 20 is actor-director-producer Tyler Perry, 42, who's created an enduring franchise with his low-budget movie comedies and a string of successful TV shows. The latter includes the current TBS hit For Better or Worse, the top-rated sitcom on basic cable and the most popular show on TV among African-American viewers.

In other news:

RIP, Donna Summer: Other pop culture news this week was a bit sadder. Donna Summer, the queen of the mid-1970s disco craze, with hits such as "Love to Love You, Baby," "Hot Stuff" and "Last Dance," died of cancer at 63. Los Angeles Times critic Randall Roberts observes that Summer and producer Giorgio Moroder created a formula that still rules the pop charts four decades later -- an explicitly sexy chanteuse, cooing music calculatingly redesigned in the studio to be played at extended length at high volume on dance floors. After a couple of decades away from the music business, Summer resurfaced in 2008 with a CD, Crayons, and performed that year as a guest star on American Idol.

Midlifers Are Bullish About Facebook Shares: Facebook, the social network with 900 million users around the world, was created by a bunch of guys under 35, who stand to make a lot of money as the company launches its initial public stock offering today. But middle-aged people are nearly as bullish on Facebook's financial prospects. According to a new Associated Press-CNBC poll, 55 percent of people between 44 and 65 think that Facebook shares are a good investment. That's nearly as much as the 59 percent of adults under 35 who have a positive view of Facebook's prospects. Only 39 percent of those over 65, in contrast, give the stock a "buy" rating. Slightly more than half of all Americans -- 56 percent -- have joined the social network.

Bono's Really Bullish on Facebook IPO: MTV reports that Bono, the frontman for Irish supergroup U2, stands to become the richest musician on the planet if Facebook's IPO performs as predicted. The 52-year-old singer privately purchased a 2.3 percent stake in the social network in 2009 for $90 million. On opening day, however, Facebook stock had its ups and downs, as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal explain.

Majority of Middle-Aged Americans Favor Legal Status for Same-Sex Relationships: There's been a lot of jaw-flapping on cable news channels about the political significance of President Obama's announcement that he now supports gay marriage. But a new Fox News poll shows that more than 70 percent of middle-aged Americans seem to be headed in the same direction. Among people ages 35 to 54, 32 percent now believe gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry legally, while 34 percent favor legally recognizing same-sex partnerships that are similar to marriage but go by a different name. Only 28 percent are opposed to legal recognition for same-sex couples. Some 63 percent believe that 20 years from now, most or all states will legally recognize gay marriages.

Coffee Drinkers Live Longer: Okay, so we finally can put to rest the notion that drinking coffee is somehow bad for your health. The Associated Press reports that a new study of 400,000 people -- the largest ever done on coffee and health -- finds that those who enjoy the bitter brew actually are slightly more likely to live longer. It doesn't matter whether you drink decaf or regular, either. "There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking," lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute explains.

Midlife Reinvention Story of the Week: Of all those Ivy League over-achievers who graduated from Columbia University this past Sunday, the most impressive academic accomplishment belongs to Gac Filipaj, 52. An ethnic Albanian refugee who was forced to flee the civil war in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Filipaj has been working for the past 20 years as a janitor at Columbia. With the help of a tuition-waiver program, in 2000 Filipaj also became a Columbia student, taking classes in the morning before his custodial shift and then studying late into the night. "I had some difficult moments," he tells the New York Daily News. "Some days, I was so tired." But he stuck with it, and after more than a decade of hard work, he earned a bachelor's degree in classics, and graduated with honors. Filipaj plans to keep his job while he earns a master's degree in Roman philosophy."I think I'm going to stay at Columbia. If I can get a job better than cleaning, good. If not, there is nothing shameful about that work." Filipaj says he hopes that his achievement will inspire others to think about getting an education.

ABC Cancels Ashley Judd Series Missing: Judd's spy-turned-helicopter-mom series, the subject of this SecondAct review, won't be coming back for a second season, TV Guide reports.

Last Word: "I'm a baby boomer and a mom, and we invented technology." -- AARP tech blogger Suzie Mitchell, 57, in a recent post

SecondAct.com invited these bloggers to share posts this week about how they've reinvented themselves. Their stories about following passions to change careers, take up new sports, re-enter the dating scene, lose weight or become a parent for the first time are intimate, heart-felt and often inspiring.

Here are some highlights:

On becoming a life coach: "I've always been a coach at heart -- the one people call when they need a sounding board. I'm a natural planner, problem solver and great listener. It would be safe to say this is the career I have been working towards all of my life, I just didn't KNOW it was my purpose until a few years ago." -- Melissa Miller-Young, on leaving the public relations and advertising business, on Zen Life Solutions.

On becoming a park volunteer: "I signed up for docent training and a few months later found myself in a classroom with 20 other late-life trainees. For the next five months, I studied geology, desert ecology, reptiles, birds, desert mammals, and Arizona history. I learned to identify dozens of desert plants. I read and did written homework, took weekly quizzes, helped prepare a plant book. It was extremely difficult, and more fun than I could have imagined." -- Kathryn Lance, on trading work as an author to volunteer at Tucson's Tohono Chul Park, on Kathryn Lance's Books and Musings.

On trading in a nursing career: "What's that expression: The proof is in the pudding? The first year I worked full-time from my home office, self-employed, hustling for work, I made more money than I did working full-time as an RN." -- Marijke Vroomen Durning, on leaving nursing in her 40s to be a medical and health-care writer, on Nurse Turned Writer.

On giving team sports another try: "I took a ball to my chest, just as I did in 1978. This time I didn't walk off the field. I finished the game. Best. Day. Ever." -- Patrick McGraw, on playing adult league soccer to get the "do over" he'd always wanted, on PFM Reports.

On becoming a triathlete: "When I finally jumped in the Hudson River for the second time, I had dropped about 50 pounds. I had worked out with a personal trainer, and I was in the best shape of my life. That year's [physical] was just the way I like it. Zero problems." -- Barb Freda, on starting to do triathlons at 50, on Babette Feasts.

On biking to reinvention: "Though I hadn't ridden it in years, I was drawn to the bicycle in my garage immediately. It would become my safety net, my refuge, my release. And it would take me to the land of carefree living, where nothing mattered but the ride." -- Jackie Dishner, on cycling to get over a failed marriage and start a new career, on BIKE with Jackie.

On dating in midlife: "If my life is a movie, I get that I'm the star, and the director and producer, but I'm pretty darn sure at this point that someone else wrote the script. Because this is not where I'm supposed to be, in an personal care aisle in a superstore looking at 18 shelf feet of choices of condoms." -- Lisa Jaffe Hubbell, on the perils of online dating, on Land Guppy.

On becoming a new mom at 38: "I thought I knew what my next two years would be like, though I didn't know what would happen after that. I thought maybe I'd come back to Apple. But then I discovered I was pregnant. And in the next few months, all of the plans I had been so sure about unraveled." -- Doña Bumgarner, on navigating midlife parenthood, on Aubergine, Musings of Midlife Mama.

On adopting at 40: "In March of 2004, a year before my 40th birthday, I traveled to Guatemala with my daughter, Anna, and my father to meet my new 6-month-old daughter. In October of that same year, Anna and I returned to Guatemala to claim my new 13-month-old son. In the period of seven months, I doubled the size of my family!" -- Jan Roberts Culpepper, on adoption, single parenthood and other midlife second acts, on Simply Jan.

On losing weight as a second act: "Deacon Walt explained that Pope John XXIII was a big man, probably as 'big as you, Don,' and then he patted my stomach. I was a bit shocked at his joke, but I wasn't offended. Instead, for some reason, it got me thinking that I should ask John XXIII to intercede for me as I contemplated doing something about my weight." -- Don Gonzalez, on his year-long midlife weight loss journey, on Joe Catholic.

On writing as a second act: "I found myself wondering what would have happened had I been more adventurous -- taken a journalism job in Canada's Far North, taught English in Asia or some such thing. At first I thought the time for those adventures had passed. But the idea that I needed to shake up my life just wouldn't go away." -- Victoria Musgrave, on trading a corporate communications job to be a freelance writer and graphic designer, on Victoria Musgrave.

On writing science fiction as a second act: "I enjoy writing a good deal more than I enjoy marketing. And I'm not making any [money]. But I still get a warm feeling from hearing from people who love my books.... A second act? Not a very profitable one, but very fulfilling." -- Sue Ann Bowling, on switching from atmospheric scientist to award-winning self-published science fiction author, on Homecoming.

On finding wisdom in middle age: "You can travel farther faster through the second half of your life if you're not carrying around all your resentments, feuds and unmet expectations from the first half of your life like over-packed luggage." -- Julie Farrar, on what travel taught her about midlife success, at Traveling Through.

Want to read more stories? You'll find a rundown of all 2012 Blogathon participants here at Word Count.

Do you have a midlife reinvention story of your own? Please share a comment below.

Gabrielsson eventually wrote a book of her own, "There Are Things I Want You to Know" About Stieg Larsson and Me, offering glimpses of their relationship and of Larsson's writing life. Meanwhile, the clamoring of publishers to find "the next Stieg Larsson" has expanded the reach of other Nordic writers. So many are being translated into English, in fact, that there's a new nonfiction release, Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction, by British author Barry Forshaw. He also wrote The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Life and Works of Stieg Larsson.

Here are five translated Nordic novels that are currently popular in the United States:

1. The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler. In icy Tumba, Sweden, a boy survives a knife attack in which three members of his family are murdered. A hypnotist tries to improve the boy's memory of the killer but instead touches off an alarming chain of events that made the novel a bestseller in France, Germany and Spain.

"In keeping with the Swedish trend of producing page-turners, this one hooks the reader from the beginning," says reviewer Havovi Wadia, writing for the blog DNA: Daily News & Analysis. "It seems a little tame to call this novel a 'thriller,'" Wadia adds. "It belongs among the greater crime fiction of our time -- with the works of authors such as P.D. James and Minette Walters."

Kepler, a nom de plume for the husband-and-wife writing team of Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril, employs "deft intercutting, nimble chronology-juggling and a ticking clock" to stoke the suspense, writes reviewer Mindy Farabee in the Los Angeles Times. Intense visuals bode well for the movie version, she adds, noting that Oscar winner Lasse Hallström has been tapped to direct an adaptation. Kepler also has a sequel, The Nightmare, due out in July.

2. Easy Money by Jens Lapidus. A student desperate for money accepts a job dealing drugs in a novel set among mob bosses and thugs in Stockholm's seamy underworld. Lapidus, a former defense attorney, conjures a corrupt justice system in story that sold 700,000 copies in Sweden -- the first installment of a three-book saga. "If you're hardy enough to tackle crime narratives drenched in vitriol, grit your teeth and tackle Jens Lapidus's lacerating Stockholm Noir trilogy," writes Barry Forshaw in the British newspaper The Independent. "Lapidus paints a more cosmopolitan canvas than other writers -- not to mention employing a far grimmer and more nihilistic use of the genre."

Stockholm, as depicted in a narrative that frequently shifts points of view, is "a complex world, and the interrelationships between these men -- never fully revealed to them, but revealed piecemeal to the reader -- is equally complex," writes reviewer Matt Craig in the book blog Reader Dad. Lapidus constructs a distinctive story that's "much more than the sum of its parts," Craig adds. "The comparisons with Larsson are undeniable and, in my opinion, well-founded."

3. Headhunters by Jo Nesbø. This Norwegian thriller involves a corporate headhunter who struggles to support his indulgent lifestyle -- and that of his high-maintenance trophy wife -- by trafficking in stolen art, a sideline that soon has him in dire straits.

"This is a stylish read in the best traditions of crime-writing, which is as you might expect from a writer like Jo Nesbø, who has won so many prizes for his earlier books," writes Tom Cunliffe of the blog A Common Reader. "He does not shrink from graphic detail of the more violent incidents but is a master of restraint when it comes to providing clues to guide the reader through his complex plotting." Nesbø, an ex-soccer player, ex-stockbroker, ex-journalist and a singer and songwriter for a rock band, has sold more than 1.5 million books in Norway.

"Following Larsson's death, Norwegian Jo Nesbø is the next big thing," writes Yasmeen Khan in a blog called The Quietus, lauding the film version of Headhunters, which opened last month in British theaters. "Like Nesbø's novel," Khan says, the darkly comic film "skates smoothly over the surface of the story it's telling, presenting an amoral corporate world that's just a shell, barely concealing the savagery underneath."

4. by Jussi Adler-Olsen. One of Denmark's preeminent crime novelists presents a baffling cold case in Copenhagen: the disappearance of a politician who is presumed dead, but no one knows for sure. The file ends up with ill-tempered detective Carl Morck, a troubled but brilliant investigator who is an outcast in his own department, functioning with the aid of his immigrant assistant, Assad.

"Assad is lively, curious and hyper -- everything Carl is not," says reviewer Alan Rose of the book blog Columbia River Reader. "Just as Larsson's Girl trilogy was elevated above the norm by the fascinating character of its tattooed hacker Lisbeth Salander, what sets Keeper above the norm is Carl and Assad's relationship." Reviewer Joe Hartlaub of the blog BookReporter likens the post-Larsson literary deluge to the British music invasion that followed the Beatles. "Sure, Nordic crime novels have been popular here before," Hartlaub writes, "but not quite like this, with so many at once and so very well done." Adler-Olsen's next book, a sequel titled The Absent One, is due to arrive in August.

5. The Stonecutter by Camilla Läckberg. A detective who has just become a father must investigate the murder of a young girl found drowned in a fisherman's net in this tale by Sweden's top-selling female writer. Set in the remote seaside village of Fjällbacka, where the author was born, the novel examines intense relationships in a confined community and juxtaposes present events with the buried past.

"Why are you a Negative Nelly? Your columns seem to advocate that everyone never be able to retire and that everyone be on the 'carry-out' plan ... i.e., instead of being able to retire, [people] should die on the job ... that's NOT right. I've heard of quite a few people who wound up on the 'carry-out' plan, when they could have retired and enjoyed what remained of their lives. Please temper your columns so that people who want to retire are able to do so without any guilt and are able to enjoy life."

I went back to the column in question, in which I noted that many older employees work for more than money. In fact, surveys find that 92 percent of those who worked beyond the traditional retirement age of 65 do so because they want "to stay active and involved," and 86 percent say they "enjoyed working." As a result, people should take care in the decision to retire, because once you do retire, it's hard to land another job. While I did not say that people should not retire, I do agree with the emailer that people shouldn't feel guilty for retiring. In fact, in my previous career as a financial adviser, I worked hard to help hundreds of clients retire or to have the opportunity to work less.

[Related: Why Keep Working?]

But making retirement a viable option can mean deferring gratification at some points in your life, or having to make tough decisions in others. The emotions around these choices can be daunting and may even lead people to the wrong conclusions, which is why so many hire financial advisers.

An adviser's role is to help clients understand how they can achieve their financial goals in a manner that is consistent with their risk tolerance levels. By necessity, a dose of real life must enter the equation. Despite all of the best advice provided, sometimes the client will make a different choice. At that point, the adviser must temper what might be most financially prudent with what makes sense, given that the client is going to forge ahead with his or her plan, flaws and all. As one of my clients once put it, "Your job is half science and half art." The science part is easy -- the numbers are the numbers -- but the art of creating a plan that incorporates those numbers with the client's desires is the challenge.

[Related: What's Your Retirement Number?]

Sometimes the adviser has to be Negative Nelly. There are instances when a client must be told that he shouldn't buy a bigger house, because it would put his retirement planning in jeopardy, or that sending his child to private college would mean an extra few years of work for the parents or a pile of debt for the student, or the decision to retire early may mean assuming the risk of running out of money. The job of a financial adviser, and now as a financial journalist, requires delivering messages that are sometimes difficult to hear.

I am rooting for every single one of you to reach the goals you establish. If you want to bail out and stop working and you can afford to do so, go for it! If you want to keep on working even though you could well afford to retire, do it! Just be clear that in most cases, these are choices that are usually available only when they are preceded by planning. And by its very nature, the planning process often requires someone to play the Negative Nelly role. In the case of this column, I am happy to play that part when the situation calls for it, but I will be the first to turn into Positive Polly when you reach your desired destination.

Read more: Top 10 Reasons People Postpone Retirement

Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama administration's secretary for Health and Human Services, announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be moving rapidly to test Crenezumab, a drug that attacks amyloid plaques, the fragments of abnormal protein that accumulate in the brain as Alzheimer's progresses. Although the buildup of amyloid during the disease is not yet completely understood, many scientists now believe that the process kills brain cells by interfering with their ability to use oxygen, and is the root cause of the degenerating of cognitive and memory abilities associated with the disease.

USA Today reports that the five-year study will focus on about 300 members of a family in Medellin, Colombia, who have been shown to have a strong genetic predisposition toward the more rapid, early-onset variety of Alzheimer's. The subjects, all in their thirties, so far have not developed symptoms. They will be given the drug in hopes that it will stave off the decrease in mental function typically seen in dementia patients.

In this CBS News interview, Dr. Eric Reiman, executive director of Banner Alzheimer's Institute and the lead researcher in the Crenezumab study, says the study marks the first time researchers have been able to evaluate a promising treatment in people who have not yet begun to show effects of the disease. "Before the disorder ravages the brain, [that's] when these treatments have their best chance of working," he explains. "[There's] no guarantee these treatments will work, but we have a shot. We're very excited about that."

In addition to the Crenezumab study, NIH officials also announced a trial of another promising anti-Alzheimer's therapy, a nasal spray that provides insulin to the brain. Previous research (pdf) by University of Washington psychiatry researcher Suzanne Craft and colleagues suggests that insulin treatments help brain cells in Alzheimer's patients remain functioning by helping to boost the supply of glucose, which feeds the cells.

"The preliminary trial was promising," Craft tells USA Today. "Memory improved, and the caregivers' perceptions of their loved ones' functional skills were encouraging, as well."

The Crenezumab study will cost $100 million, about $16 million of which will come from the federal government, with the rest provided by private industry. That funding, along with the $7.9 million that the U.S. is providing for the insulin study, are part of the new National Alzheimer's Project Act -- signed into law last year by President Obama -- to conquer the disease by 2025. Toward that end, the administration reassigned $50 million in funding from the NIH budget, shifting the money to studies deemed too promising to wait, The New York Times reports.

While those two studies made headlines this week, other research efforts to find Alzheimer's treatments are proceeding, as well. Here's a University of California-San Diego School of Medicine announcement issued Tuesday about several new clinical trials of Alzheimer's treatments. One is a planned national study to examine the effects of resveratrol, a compound found in the skin of red grapes and other foods, on patients with mild to moderate dementia from Alzheimer's. Some studies already suggest that the chemical may prevent diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer, in addition to staving off memory loss. Also in the pipeline is additional research on a second anti-amyloid drug, Gantenerumab.

According to an Alzheimer's Association fact sheet, Alzheimer's Disease affects about 5.4 million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S.

Read more: 7 Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy and I Remember Better When I Paint

On the show, Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe of two-location antique shop Antique Archaeology wander U.S. back roads, finding old-timers with barns stuffed full of decades-old trash...and some treasures.

They're a couple of laid-back guys who seem to just be out on a lark, having a great time yard-sale shopping. Until it comes time to cut a deal, that is. Then they bid low, and they usually don't buy unless they can get something for about half what it's worth at retail.

How do they pull it off? Here are five negotiation tips drawn from their show:

1. Build a relationship. The pair begin by chatting up the owner and getting to know their story. Why did they collect this stuff? What sort of life have they lived? Taking this time establishes a friendly tone and shows they appreciate and respect the seller's situation.

2. Understand the motivation. Next, the Pickers find out why the seller is selling his or her prized belongings at this time. Knowing where the seller is coming from puts Fritz and Wolfe in position to rebuff protests about their offer with reminders about why they want to sell, as in, "You know you've got to rid of this. You're moving."

3. Smile a lot. When Wolfe counteroffers with a lower price, he always smiles a big smile. You can tell he finds the haggling fun, and he likes the people he buys from. He also usually gets his way. It's harder to say "no" to people who clearly like and respect you.

4. Remember the item's value. Wolfe and Fritz seem to have an antiques guide in their heads. They have a sharp sense of what items will sell for, and they stick to their markup formula. The owner may be in love with the object and think it's priceless, but if that ceramic Coke sign from the 1940s will only bring $150 after they clean it up, Wolfe's not paying much over $75.

5. Know when to walk away. When an owner wants a price that's not realistic, Wolfe and Fritz turn down the deal. "I can't do it," they say. They're not going to imperil their business by paying too much.

Most often, the pair are soon tooling down the road again with their van loaded down with choice new acquisitions. At the end of each show, they add up what they paid and what they expect to get reselling the items, and it's always a nice profit.

If you can learn to enjoy negotiating, like the Pickers do, I think you end up getting more of what you want.

What are your negotiating tips? Leave a comment and add to our list.

Keep reading: 10 Secrets to Asking for a Pay Raise
How to Negotiate a Flexible Work Schedule

From the start, it seemed to me that I had two choices. I could view unemployment and its aftermath as an aberration -- as something that shouldn't have happened to me -- or I could do my best to accept the situation and ask what it could teach me (an option made far easier by the fact that I had some savings). I opted for the second path, and as it happened, in the months, then years, that followed, I grew increasingly fascinated by the inside of the downturn -- the inner lives of those of us cast adrift in the economic maelstrom.

How can we cultivate happiness when things aren't going our way?

What strategies and resources are most helpful in navigating tough transitions?

What does it mean to be resilient, and can we really "just do it"?

Being a writer, my first impulse was to sort out these questions on paper, first privately and then, little by little, for public consumption. After "outing myself" at Salon -- "I'm Amy. I'm unemployed." -- I went on to explore those questions in a personal blog as well as for venues including Psychology Today and SecondAct.com. My goal was twofold: both to claim my own Great Recession story and to forge connections with fellow travelers in what I'd come to think of as Plan B Nation. ("Plan B -- it's the new Plan A!" I quipped to a friend who, like me, had an unex­pected reversal. "Plan A, that's so 20th century," I dryly remarked to another.)

It's been quite a journey, both harder and more rewarding than I could have imagined during those scary and confusing first weeks that followed my last day of paid employment. While my life has changed a lot since then (more about that to come), the post-recession world continues to be a vastly challenging place. During boom times, it can be easy to drift along, buoyed by a strong economy and the promise of life unfolding more or less according to plan. But when resources are scarce or uncertain, as is often the case today, we need to get creative, to clarify our priorities and make the most of what we have.

Strategies for doing exactly that will be the focus of this column. I'm thrilled at the prospect of connecting with SecondAct readers and look forward to sharing what I've learned and, of course, learning from you. I'll be recounting per­sonal sto­ries (both my own and others') along with looking at research likely to prove help­ful in traveling the often-rocky Plan B Nation terrain. I'd also love to hear from you. Are there topics you'd like to see addressed? Do you have a story to share? Please let me know.

There is no single Plan B Nation story. We have different strengths, different weaknesses, different temperaments, different needs. That said, my hope is that, whatever your situation, you'll find something useful here. While the facts of our stories may be quite different, our feelings are often the same.

Read more: How to Find Your Career Bliss and The Secret to Living Well on Less

For the last decade, her Boston-based firm has helped fill the shoes of chief executive officers, chief financial officers, directors of communication, vice presidents of development and project managers for a panoply of nonprofits, including the Kellogg Foundation, Civic Ventures, Boston College, the National Urban League and Special Olympics International.

The nonprofit sector is a bright spot in a tight job market. Last fall, 42 percent of 3,000 nonprofit organizations surveyed said they expected to hire new staff, according to an Idealist.org poll.

"There's no doubt that nonprofit hiring from the corporate world is on the rise," says Gassner Otting. "Recent seismic economic shifts, increased board savvy, and a retiring but still active baby boomer population have changed the landscape of hiring."

But good intentions aside, unrealistic expectations on both sides can make for a rocky partnership. In an interview with SecondAct.com, Gassner Otting shares six tips for making a successful transition to a nonprofit career.

1. Be careful about being the first one in. Do a background search on the organization's board and the staff, and see if there are others on board who have business backgrounds. Just because a nonprofit says it wants to bring in best practices from businesses doesn't mean it necessarily knows how to, or is sold on doing so. "You fail because no one knows how to harness your talent or has their heart in the hiring decision," says Gassner Otting.

[Related: From For-Profit to Nonprofit]

2. Make the "why now" not all about you, or all about them. No one wants to hear 'I woke up and I couldn't live another day without giving back.' And a proclamation that your business smarts will save the nonprofit is a deadly sin. "We want to hear why you want this specific job for this specific cause and how it resonates with your personal story," she says. "Getting good at explaining this is essential."

[Related: Best Second Act Making a Difference]

3. Show them the money. You may not know how to work with foundations or may not have done fundraising. But if you understand how to sell a product, for example, you can diversify an income stream in a nonprofit that makes you unique and less risky.

4. Serve on a board. It's a great way to get known by an organization, to get known in the field, and get experience with the pace of the sector -- it can be slower. It's also a good way to build a network.

5. Get active. Beyond getting on boards, volunteering and consulting, just showing up to nonprofit events for causes that interest you will confirm your commitment to making the transition, and you'll build your network at the same time.

[Related: Boomers Lead All Age Groups in Volunteering]

6. Know your numbers. The pay generally is less. Do some thinking about your "need to make" number and their "want to make" number. "An acceptable offer will typically come somewhere between the two," says Gassner Otting.

SecondAct asks: Have you made a successful transition to the nonprofit world? What additional tips would you suggest for midlife career changers?

SecondAct contributor Kerry Hannon is a Contributing Editor for U.S. News & World Report and the author of Whats Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job.

Read more: 10 Top Sites for Finding Nonprofit Jobs