Teenagers tend to wildly overestimate the odds of dying young, and teenagers who think they’ll be dead before age 35 are far more likely to abuse drugs, attempt suicide, get arrested, or contract HIV. Scientists have known for quite a while that teenagers tend to think that an early death is much more likely than the infinitesimally small risk it really is. What’s recently been discovered, and is intriguing for teens and the people who love them, is that there seems to be a connection between having a fatalistic take on life and behaving in ways that actually make it more likely that you will die-or at least be sick and miserable-instead of blossoming into a healthy young adult. Here’s the back story: When 20,745 teenagers in grades 7 to 12 were asked about their chances of living to age 35, about 15 percent of them said there was at least a fifty-fifty chance that they would not make it. In truth, the odds of dying that young are almost vanishingly small. Interestingly, it seems that death is uniquely confounding as a risk, because teenagers aren’t off base when guessing their chances of other life-changing events, including getting pregnant, […]
So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement. But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases. And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason – treason against the planet. To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research. The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe – a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable – can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course. Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end […]
BAGHDAD — At a moment of triumph, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki stood before a room full of reporters recently and publicly fretted about Iraq’s future. After six years, U.S. troops were completing their withdrawal from Iraqi cities, the first step toward their complete departure by the end of 2011. The prime minister has declared today’s deadline a holiday. And yet, Maliki acknowledged: ‘The challenge isn’t finished. . . . What country in the world has such terrorist attacks?’ Maliki described a nation that may be too feeble to overcome its legacy of violence and corruption. ‘I want [Iraq] to stand on its own feet,’ the prime minister said. He called on Iraqis to unite and do away with divisive, faction-based politics. Maliki’s extended question-and-answer session highlighted changes in Iraq in the last six years. Here was a leader engaging in a relatively frank public dialogue — something that would have been unthinkable under Saddam Hussein, or in many of Iraq’s neighbors even today. That sense of openness is in part a reflection of U.S. efforts to build a more democratic system. His acknowledgment of the difficulties ahead is a testament to the mistakes on America’s […]
In a heart attack, the blood supply to part of the heart is shut off by a clot in a clogged artery – causing scarring of the heart muscle, which reduces the ability of the heart to pump. The best that doctors have been able to do is to promptly open up the clogged artery and limit the damage with drugs. But one day, there may be a way to get that damaged heart to grow its own brand-new muscle tissue. How? By using the patient’s own cardiac stem cells. This week doctors in Los Angeles have given a heart attack patient an infusion of stem cells grown from his own heart muscle. It’s a first, as CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports. It was mid-May when 39-year-old Ken Milles was blindsided by a serious heart attack – and the doctor’s bad news. Milles said, ‘When he told me that there was permanent damage and that the duration of my life was reduced – that freaked me out.’ Especially since the construction company employee has a wife and two teen-aged boys. So he volunteered be one of 24 recent heart attack patients […]
Study: High-Fat Diet, Especially Those Rich in Animal Fats, Tied to Increased Risk of Pancreatic Can
New research shows that people who eat a high-fat diet may be more likely to develop pancreatic cancer, especially if their dietary fat comes from animal foods, such as meat and dairy products. That finding appears in the July 15 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. ‘Our study demonstrated a positive association between dietary intake of total fat, particularly fat from animal sources,’ researcher Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, PhD, RD, tells WebMD. ‘The strongest associations we observed were from meat and dairy products.’ Stolzenberg-Solomon, who is a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, says previous studies have shown mixed results on whether dietary fat is associated with pancreatic cancer risk. The new study included more than half a million U.S. adults. When the study started, none of them had pancreatic cancer. Participants completed surveys about their diets over the previous year, which showed fat intake ranging from 20% to 40% of calories. People who ate a lot of fat were ‘regular eaters of fat from animals,’ Stolzenberg-Solomon said. Participants were followed for six years, on average. During that time, 865 of the men and 472 of the women were diagnosed with pancreatic […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
