E-Cigs And New York's "They Look Too Real!" Argument

Posted on December 7, 2013 by
By Amy Alkon
donkeyrock shared this story from Advice Goddess Blog.

E-Cigs And New York's "They Look Too Real!" Argument
Reason Foundation's Adrian Moore tweeted:

@reasonpolicy
Nanny NYC Health Commissioner Says E-Cigarettes Must Be Banned Because They Look Like the Real Thing

My tweet back:

Tofurky, meatless meatballs, and those hotdogs made from tofu feet and snouts should be next on the "looks real" hit list.

Moore's tweet linked to this Jacob Sullum piece at reason:

Yesterday the New York City Council held what The New York Times describes as "one of the most scientifically vague and emotionally charged health committee hearings in recent memory."

He continues in another reason piece:

The New York City Council is considering a ban on the use of electronic cigarettes in bars, restaurant, and other "public places"--not because there is any evidence that the devices pose a hazard but because they look too much like regular cigarettes. Councilman James Gennaro, a sponsor of the proposed ban, tells The New York Times, "We see these cigarettes are really starting to proliferate, and it's unacceptable." Why is it unacceptable? According to the Times, "Mr. Gennaro said children who could not differentiate between regular and electronic smoking were getting the message that smoking is socially acceptable."
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Not From the Onion-NROL 39

Posted on December 7, 2013 by
By Alex Tabarrok
donkeyrock shared this story from Marginal Revolution.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched a new spy-satellite, NROL-39, on Dec. 5. When I first saw this I felt sure it couldn't be real, it must be from The Onion but no, this is the official logo for the satellite which you can see on the rocket and in this NRO press release.

When the history of how the United States became a dystopian, surveillance state is written no one will be able to say that we were not warned.

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TIL many areas are using a beet juice and salt mixture on their roads to keep them from freezing over. The beet juice prevents roads from icing over in temperatures up to -25°C, making it more effective than using a salt brine. A beet juice mixture is also less toxic to the environment.

Posted on December 7, 2013 by
donkeyrock shared this story from reddit: the front page of the internet.
submitted by Thinc_Ng_Kap to todayilearned
[link] [294 comments]
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Today, we remember...

Posted on December 7, 2013 by
donkeyrock shared this story from r/MURICA on Imgur.
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You absolutely cannot be healthy any more – it’s official

Posted on December 7, 2013 by
By Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
donkeyrock shared this story from Dr. Malcolm Kendrick.

I have been waiting for some time now before it became officially impossible to be healthy. In recent years the boundaries of health have been inexorably squeezed tighter and tighter. Recently, they snapped shut. The land of the healthy now no longer exists. Tis but a memory.

I wondered if it would be cholesterol that would obliterate health first, but it turned out to be blood pressure. This was pretty much second favourite in my book.

As with many areas of ‘health' the definition of a healthy blood pressure has fallen and fallen. A few years ago we had go to the stage of a condition known as pre-hypertension. A state of having a high blood pressure that wasn't really high, but represented an ill-defined danger of some sort. This pressure was set at 115/75mmHg. Far lower than the average blood pressure in the Western World.

However, with the latest CV prevention guidelines (yes, them again) we have managed to get the optimal systolic blood pressure down to 90mmHg. Underneath, you will see a little graph that I created using the CV risk tool. The tool can be downloaded here:

So you can check out for yourself that what I am saying is true.

CV event risk in next 10 years vs systolic BP

I put in figures for a healthy male, and then only changed the blood pressure level. As you can see, as the blood pressure goes up, the risk of a CV event goes up, and vice-versa. Going from 90mmHg to 150mmHg causes your risk to go up from 2.6% to 6.5%. A 250% increase in relative risk. What this tells us is that 90mHg represents the absolutely optimum blood pressure. Anything higher and your risk increases, and it increases quite steeply.

By definition, this means that a systolic blood pressure of 90mHg is ‘healthy' and anything above this becomes increasingly ‘unhealthy.' Now it has to be said that a systolic blood pressure of 90mmHg is low. Pretty damned low. Indeed, I have been asked to check patients out because their systolic BP was 90mmHg, and the nurse was rather worried about them.

I can hardly blame the nurse for this, because the definition of hypotension (dangerously blood pressure), is…yes, you guessed it, a systolic blood pressure of 90mmHg and lower. You can check this ‘fact' on the National Institutes of Health site.

This means that we have reached a situation whereby a systolic blood pressure lower ...read more

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That Was the Week That Was (#349)

Posted on December 7, 2013 by
By Maggie McNeill
donkeyrock shared this story from The Honest Courtesan.

Prostitutes…will be forced to continue to hide…because even if they are not risking arrest, their clients are. And their survival depends on their clients.- Tim Leicester

Remember Chris Baughman, the Las Vegas cop claiming to be an “expert” on “pimps”? Pay especial note to the “magical pimp” trope:

[MSNBC's]…new series, Slave Hunter: Freeing Victims of Human Trafficking…reveals…what happens behind closed doors in the sex trafficking underworld. The series highlights the…work of human rights advocate, Aaron Cohen and his partner, former Las Vegas vice detective, Chris Baughman…MSNBC's cameras follow Cohen and Baughman as they…identify trafficked women via on-line ads and then arrange to meet them in New York City hotel rooms with Cohen posing as a potential john. When the women are open to help, Cohen and Baughman…[help] them to escape their bonds and build a new life…other times, the trafficked women sadly succumb to the powers of their “pimp”…

We can only hope this blows up in NBC's face the way To Catch a Predatoreventually did. Hey, guys, do you know the word for men like you who prey on women in order to enrich and aggrandize themselves? Oops.

An Example to the West

…over 1,500 sex workers…[voted in Delhi on] December 4…thanks to an enrollment drive by the state election commission…over 80 per cent [of] sex workers [are now registered]…”We all will vote…for the person who will fulfill our long-pending demands,” Munni Begum…of GB Road Sex Workers Association…said…

And in Mysore:

…Ashodaya Samithi…is…a powerful collective…of 336 members…[and] a network of volunteers operating in six districts of Karnataka. It reaches out to 8,000 sex workers through its different initiatives…such as providing knowledge of legal and human rights…running drop-in-centres, operation of a crisis management unit, a restaurant…and a training academy predominantly run by members …they also offer HIV and STI testing facilities, counselling and free condoms…90 percent of sex workers in Mysore have been contacted monthly, 70 percent…visit…drop in centres regularly and 65 percent have become consistent condom users. Ashodaya Samithi has successfully reduced STI prevalence within three years…

The Power of Myth

As I've explained before, even cases which could credibly be called “trafficking” rarely fit the myth:

…Since Australia introduced tough laws to crack down on trafficking a decade ago…eight of 15 people…convicted…were…female…migrants, born in the ...read more

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Higgs Boson Prof Believes He'd Never Get A Prof Job Today

Posted on December 7, 2013 by
By Amy Alkon
donkeyrock shared this story from Advice Goddess Blog.

Higgs Boson Prof Believes He'd Never Get A Prof Job Today
Decca Aitkenhead writes for The Guardian that the requirement that professors keep churning out papers makes physicist Peter Higgs doubt that he could keep a university job today:

Peter Higgs, the British physicist who gave his name to the Higgs boson, believes no university would employ him in today's academic system because he would not be considered "productive" enough.

The emeritus professor at Edinburgh university, who says he has never sent an email, browsed the internet or made a mobile phone call, published fewer than 10 papers following his groundbreaking work in 1964 which identified the mechanism by which subatomic material acquires mass.

He doubts that a similar breakthrough could be achieved in today's academic culture, because of the expectations on academics to collaborate and keep churning out papers. He said: "It's difficult to imagine how I would ever have enough peace and quiet in the present sort of climate to do what I did in 1964."

Speaking to the Guardian en route to Stockholm to receive the 2013 Nobel prize for science, Higgs, 84, said he would almost certainly have been sacked had he not been nominated for the Nobel in 1980.

Edinburgh university's authorities then took the view, he later learned, that he "might get a Nobel prize - and if he doesn't we can always get rid of him".

Higgs said he became "an embarrassment to the department when they did research assessment exercises". A message would go around the department saying: "Please give a list of your recent publications." Higgs said: "I would send back a statement: 'None.'"

@briandavidearp, @sbkaufman

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