Marlboro and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

An American actor has become the fifth former “Marlboro Man” from the long-running series of cigarette advertisements to die from a smoking-related disease.

Got a smoke? Filtered,

 flavored, pack or box? 

William Thourlby

In the 1950s, William Thourlby looked out from billboards and invited smokers to Marlboro Country, said Corey Kilgannon in The New York Times. “I’m the original Marlboro Man,” says the 88-year-old former actor and model.

“But I never smoked or drank, and I was no cowboy.”

Four other stories that succumbed to illnesses linked to smoking:

(Eric Lawson, David Millar, Wayne McLAren, David McLean and Richard Hammer)

Eric Lawson, who portrayed the rugged cowboy character in magazines during the late 1970s and early 1980s, died from a lung condition at his home in San Luis Obispo, California. He was 72.

Mr Lawson, who started smoking when he was 14, suffered respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to his wife, Susan.

In October 1987, David Millar, one of the first Marlboro Men on television screens in the 1950s, died from emphysema at 81 at a hospital near his home in New Hampshire.

Almost five years later, Wayne McLaren died at 51, after a long struggle with lung cancer. In his final years he used his status as a former Marlboro Man to mount a high-profile lawsuit against Philip Morris, which manufactures Marlboros, and warn the public about smoking’s health risks.

“Tobacco will kill you, and I am living proof of it,” were some of his last words, his mother said shortly after his death in California.

David McLean (73) and Richard Hammer (69) , both 1970s Marlboro Men, died from lung cancer in California in the late 1990s.

  Mr McLean, who was when he died, reportedly smoked five packets a day at one stage. Mr Hammer died aged 69.

Like Mr McLaren, Mr Lawson criticised smoking later in his career. He appeared in a commercial that parodied Marlboro Man, and discussed on American television the negative effects of smoking.

However, his wife conceded that he was addicted even then:

“He knew the cigarettes had a hold on him. He knew, yet he still couldn’t stop.”

ethical questions without answers: Marlise Muñoz

Texas judge: Remove brain-dead woman from ventilator, other machines

By Ed Lavandera. Josh Rubin and Greg Botelho, CNN

January 25, 2014 -- Updated 0309 GMT (1109 HKT)

Judge orders pregnant woman off ventilator

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Judge orders hospital to remove woman from ventilator, respirator
• Hospital agrees woman brain dead since November 28, fetus not viable, court papers say
• Family wants her taken off respirator, ventilator so they can take her body and bury it
• Fort Worth hospital had said it was following state law by keeping her on ventilator

Fort Worth, Texas (CNN) -- 

A Texas judge ordered a Fort Worth hospital to remove a pregnant and brain-dead woman from respirators and ventilators on Friday, perhaps ending a wrenching legal debate about who is alive, who is dead and how the presence of a fetus changes the equation.

Could we disconnect Marlise Munoz 

from life support immediately?

DEBATE: unethical medicine

in life, there are humans, and what these people consider "right" and "wrong" can change. That's the trick with ethics, the study of right and wrong. Accepted beliefs evolve. 

So how does ethics work in medicine, and how might it be different in 100 years?

Different professions have their own ethical standards. Examples of ethical themes in most of them include honesty, carefulness, integrity, non-discrimination and confidentiality. Because of medical ethics, you can have a reasonable expectation that your personal information will be kept private, your clinical providers won't be impaired, and your wishes for care while incapacitated will be respected.

Ethics are so highly valued in medicine that most doctors pledge to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath.

health -cranky sociologists

Not Getting What One Pays For – 

US Healthcare System Compared

By SocProf.

A few weeks back, the Economist’s Daily Chart feature had this highly informative chart:

Compared to other rich countries, the United States has a whole bunch of health and health care outcomes that are out of whack with the rest of high-income countries especially considering the higher % of the GDP dedicated to health spending.

A non-communicable disease, or NCD, is a medical condition or disease, which by definition is non-infectious and non-transmissible among people. NCDs may be chronic diseases of long duration and slow progression, or they may result in more rapid death such as some types of sudden stroke. They include autoimmune diseases, heart disease, stroke, many cancers, asthma, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and more

Yesterday, the Washington Post had a series of graphs on the same topic, zeroing on higher prices for procedures and medications. Here are a few.

Cost differential for a regular doctor visit:

Hip replacement:

Cost per hospital day:

And last but not least:

So, higher costs across the board, but poorer outcomes in the end.

As always, the essential sociological question: who benefits? (It’s not a hard one)

bacteria, virus and epidemics

How Bacteria in Our Bodies Protect Our Health

Researchers who study the friendly bacteria that live inside all of us are starting to sort out who is in charge—microbes or people?

Biologists once thought that human beings were phys­iological islands, entirely capable of regulating their own internal workings. Our bodies made all the enzymes needed for breaking down food and using its nutrients to power and repair our tissues and organs. Signals from our own tissues dictated body states such as hunger or satiety. The specialized cells of our immune system taught themselves how to recognize and attack dangerous microbes—pathogens—while at the same time sparing our own tissues.

The real size of things to come... here

The amazing world of Bacteria

Epidemiological research:

The Future Of Facebook [Research]

Some real research conducted by real rocket scientists, John Cannarella and Joshua A. Spechler, from Princeton’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in their article,“Epidemiological modeling of online social network dynamics”.

Facebook’s future, the research

Cannarella and Spechler used epidemiological models to explain social media user behavior where adoption was analogous to infection and abandonment was analogous to recovery. 

Their model suggests Facebook has already reached the peak of its popularity. They conclude that Facebook has entered a decline phase, as shown by a downward trend in search frequency since 2012. Extrapolating the best fit model into the future, they predict Facebook activity will rapidly decline over the next few years. 

Facebook concerned with health:

 Mark Zuckerberg gives $5 mn for health centre

And ... Facebook hits back, 

'Princeton University will shut down'

Facebook data scientist Mike Develin has decided to use similar methods to give Princeton a taste of its own medicine and “prove” that Princeton’s enrollment will crash all the way to zero in less than a decade.

• Facebook schools Princeton: The uni will have no students by 2021, claims platform after being described as an infectious disease: 
• Facebook has hit back at a study from Princeton which suggested that the social media platform would lose 80 per cent of its users by 2018 in a tongue-in-cheek blog posts which suggests the university. (Thedrum.com) Read News
• Princeton Study Saying Facebook Is Doomed Gets Destroyed In Hilarious Fashion By A Facebook Data Scientist (FB): 
• Researchers at Princeton made news this week by proclaiming the impending doom of Facebook. They concluded that Facebook will lose 80% of its peak users between 2015- 2017. Naturally this research re. (BusinessInsider) Read News
• Facebook mocks 'infection' study, predicts Princeton's demise: 
• A study by researchers at Princeton University made waves this week with its prediction that Facebook could lose 80 percent of its users by 2017. Facebook has struck back with a post using similar statistics.(NBCNews) Read News
• Facebook Study Finds That Princeton Is The One On Brink Of Extinction: 
• A new study shows that Facebook isn’t in danger of extinction. But maybe Princeton is. A Facebook data scientist released his own analysis today to poke at a recent study out of Princeton that.(Adweek.com) Read News
• Facebook gives best possible response to ridiculous Princeton study: 
• Earlier this week we highlighted a study from Princeton that used Google search trends to predict that Facebook would lose 80% of its users by 2017. The study seemed so flat-out ridiculous to us t.(Yahoo!News) Read News

Deteriorata

Deteriorata

                                                        by Tony Hendra - 197

(You are a fluke of the universe.

You have no right to be here.

Deteriorata, Deteriorata) 

Go placidly amidst the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof. Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep. Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself; and heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys. Know what to kiss - and when. Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do. Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted, that in the face of all irridity and disillusionment, and despite the changing fortunes of time, there is always a big future in computer maintenance. 

(You are a fluke of the universe.

You have no right to be here.

Whether you can hear it or not,

The universe is laughing behind your back.)

Remember the Pueblo. Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate. Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI. 

Exercise caution in your daily affairs, especially with those persons closest to you... That lemon on your left, for instance. Be assured that a walk through the seas of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet. 

Fall not in love, therefore, it will stick to your face. Gracefully surrender the things of youth: the birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan - and let not the sands of time get in your lunch. Hire people with hooks. For a good time, call 606-4311, ask for Ken. 

Take heart in the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting enough cheese. And reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee. 

(You are a fluke of the universe. ... ) 

Therefore, make peace with your god, whatever you perceive him to be: hairy thunderer or cosmic muffin. With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate. GIVE UP!

(You are a fluke of the universe. ...)

The parody was written by Tony Hendra for National Lampoon, and was recorded as part of the National Lampoon Radio Dinner album, released in 1972. Voiceover talent Norman Rose read the "poem" and Melissa Manchester was a background singer on the chorus section of the song. Christopher Guest wrote the music.

Eduardo Saiz is a biologist and scientific illustrator.

Eduardo Saiz

www.eduardosaiz.com
Born in Burgos in 1950, Eduardo Saiz is a biologist and scientific illustrator.

Zoology, botanical studies, archaeology, palaeontology, history and ethnography are some of the scientific fields in which he has worked during his professional career as an illustrator. He has also dedicated himself to museography and publishing publications and is professor of scientific illustration in various universities and institutions: UAB, UB, Escola Massana, UdG, UVic or the Museum of Human Evolution of Burgos, amongst others.

http://www.elperiodico.cat/ca/videos/opinio/entrevista-eduardo-saiz-illustrador-cientific/2898220.shtml

Cuaderno de la trashumancia

http://www.eduardosaiz.com/archivos/espanol/cuaderno/trashuma/trashu04.htm

http://www.eduardosaiz.com/archivos/espanol/galerias/evo.hum/evolu01.htm

Eduardo Sáiz dibuja en directo un homínido

Spot the sound differences

Pronounce the following sentences as your partner does.

Spot the differences with him/her:


She told me to talk about the e-waste.

The words "world war" are finally in our leaders' decisions.

The mention of nature is good 
for the volunteers of your country.

The aim of the owner of the building 
is to be constructed this century 
as he has always promised.

The vehicle for the guardian of my aunt 
is powered by natural cable energy.

The three expeditions wished to raise
 the awareness for the true archeological Egypt.

Those press articles deal with the changing reading taste
in the society of modern libraries.

There aren't many Irishmen registered in Spain
because the text mentioned only 12.530.

There is a mild climate in another island 
of the Pacific ocean.

Houses for all -documentary by Gereon Wetzel -towards our Polar Bear Star

 HOUSES FOR ALLDocumentary by Gereon Wetzel, 52 Min., Germany 2013

Shortly after the real estate bubble had burst in the United States Spain was struck by the same fate. In total 3,6 million housing units - ranging from completed houses to ruins or half developed lots - are facing an uncertain future. How will man and nature reclaim those spaces? 

A bus driving school … on the empty streets of a ghost town, … a guardsman... a shepherd herding his flock between the ruins, English tourists that play golf on a totally abandoned course and illegal immigrants that settle in the naked skeleton of an high rising apartment building. 

CASAS PARA TODOS (Houses for all) deliberately avoids a journalistic approach. Neither is it important where the filmed places are actually located nor what specific reasons were responsible for their downfall. The idea is that all places share a common history which is one of a society that is uncontrollably longing for status.

Spanish property: Polaris golf resort homes crash to a third of original price

Murcia's credit-fuelled building spree ends in rash of repossessions, empty villas and roads to nowhere

• Miles Brignall, in Murcia
• The Guardian, Friday 25 May 2012 18.20 BST

Spain's building boom once enticed investors hoping to profit from the popularity of the country's southern regions. Photograph: Miles Brignall

They were once Europe's most ambitious holiday homes projects, vast developments financed by supersized loans from Spain's cajas and banks. The properties were widely advertised on television in the UK to entice investors chasing the good life in the sun and hoping to profit from the property boom.

But five years on, the Polaris World holiday dream of sun-drenched apartments overlooking golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus has turned sour. Apartments that once sold for €200,000 (£160,000) are struggling to fetch €60,000. The last resorts built are now ghost villages.

Welcome to Murcia, the very heart of Spain's property boom and bust, where repossessions are sweeping the region and where losses are straining balance sheets of almost every Spanish bank.