Everyone knows that smoking causes a number of health problems such as lung cancer, emphysema, etc. But did you know that there is actually a health benefit? There have been numerous scientific studies that imply smoking prevents, or at least delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
A statistically significant inverse association between smoking and Alzheimer's disease was observed at all levels of analysis, with a trend towards decreasing risk with increasing consumption" (International Journal of Epidemiology, 1991). "The risk of Alzheimer's disease decreased with increasing daily number of cigarettes smoked before onset of disease. . . . In six families in which the disease was apparently inherited . . . the mean age of onset was 4.17 years later in smoking patients than in non-smoking patients from the same family" (British Medical Journal, June 22, 1991). "Although more data are needed . . . (an analysis of 19 studies suggests) nicotine protects against AD" (Neuroepidemiology, 1994). Nicotine injections significantly improved certain types of mental functioning in Alzheimer's patients (Psychopharmacology, 1992). One theory: nicotine improves the responsiveness of Alzheimer's patients to acetylcholine, an important brain chemical.
However, the research is considered contradictory. It is the opinion of one scientist that the reason it is believed that smoking prevents Alzheimer's is because the smoker usually kicks the proverbial bucket, due to smoking-related illness, before Alzheimer's has a chance to attack.
Smoking always comes with risk and is never really beneficial for your health. The main benefit of smoking right now is a societal one-- the hope that smokers will die of disease before there's any depletion of retirement funds for non-smokers.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Human Hibernation
Learned: A minute ago, just another one of the useless things I was thinking about.
Everyone knows what hibernation is, and that it occurs in animals such as squirrels and bears (most commonly known.) But could it/has it ever happened in a human?
Technically, hibernation is a reduced metabolic rate, a decrease in body temperature, and slowed heart rate, all for the purpose of conserving energy over a long period of time, in which the organism undergoing hibernation "sleeps."
Humans, obviously, don't have the need or ability to hibernate naturally. However, after researching this topic, it seems that there have been a few occurrences where something similar to hibernation occurred in a human.
A child in Alberta Canada wandered out into her yard in the middle of February and disappeared in the snow. When she was found some hours later, she was clinically dead. Her heart had stopped beating nearly two hours before and her body temperature dropped to 60F. Other sources say that she had a slow pulse of 30 bpm but no blood circulation whatsoever. Either way, dead.
She, miraculously, was revived at the hospital. She had severe frostbite, but no amputations were necessary and she made a full recovery.
Another man from Japan "fell asleep" in the snow and was found 23 days later in a denned/hibernated state. He also made a full recovery. (When I say he fell asleep in the snow, he literally and purposely laid down on a mountainside to take a nap.)
Considering that there are only two known/documented occurrences of human "hibernation," it's safe to say that generally, human hibernation does not occur. Most people who fall asleep on a mountain for 23 days will freeze to death. People who have severe drops in body temperature and no heartbeat for two hours are usually dead. Forever. Or for a hot minute until their souls travel to be with Jesus, or whatever your beliefs are.
But, I wonder, is there a way to induce hibernation in humans?
According to the interwebz, a hibernation induction trigger (HIT) is found in the blood of a hibernating animal. Scientists have taken the blood from a hibernating squirrel and injected it into a squirrel in the middle of the summer. That squirrel went into premature hibernation shortly thereafter.
The life of a pig's heart, isolated from the rest of the pig's body, was able to be prolonged through HIT.
WHICH MEANS of course that crazy Americans are doing lots of crazy experiments at even crazier places such as NASA in the hopes that HIT can be used on astronauts someday for travel to distant stars, etc.
It also means that HIT could potentially save people with fatal illnesses by "putting them to sleep" and decreasing the activity of their internal organs long enough for doctors to come up with a treatment.
Chemically, HIT is classified as an opioid... like morphine and heroin (which might explain why heroin overdoses can put a person into a coma.)
Does this make bears drug addicts? I think yes. MAYBE after they wake up from their drug-induced coma, I mean their hibernation, they go through a sort of withdrawal period. This would explain bear attacks on sleeping humans in their tents in the middle of the night. The poor bears are looking for a fix of something they can't identify.
Everyone knows what hibernation is, and that it occurs in animals such as squirrels and bears (most commonly known.) But could it/has it ever happened in a human?
Technically, hibernation is a reduced metabolic rate, a decrease in body temperature, and slowed heart rate, all for the purpose of conserving energy over a long period of time, in which the organism undergoing hibernation "sleeps."
Humans, obviously, don't have the need or ability to hibernate naturally. However, after researching this topic, it seems that there have been a few occurrences where something similar to hibernation occurred in a human.
A child in Alberta Canada wandered out into her yard in the middle of February and disappeared in the snow. When she was found some hours later, she was clinically dead. Her heart had stopped beating nearly two hours before and her body temperature dropped to 60F. Other sources say that she had a slow pulse of 30 bpm but no blood circulation whatsoever. Either way, dead.
She, miraculously, was revived at the hospital. She had severe frostbite, but no amputations were necessary and she made a full recovery.
Another man from Japan "fell asleep" in the snow and was found 23 days later in a denned/hibernated state. He also made a full recovery. (When I say he fell asleep in the snow, he literally and purposely laid down on a mountainside to take a nap.)
Considering that there are only two known/documented occurrences of human "hibernation," it's safe to say that generally, human hibernation does not occur. Most people who fall asleep on a mountain for 23 days will freeze to death. People who have severe drops in body temperature and no heartbeat for two hours are usually dead. Forever. Or for a hot minute until their souls travel to be with Jesus, or whatever your beliefs are.
But, I wonder, is there a way to induce hibernation in humans?
According to the interwebz, a hibernation induction trigger (HIT) is found in the blood of a hibernating animal. Scientists have taken the blood from a hibernating squirrel and injected it into a squirrel in the middle of the summer. That squirrel went into premature hibernation shortly thereafter.
The life of a pig's heart, isolated from the rest of the pig's body, was able to be prolonged through HIT.
WHICH MEANS of course that crazy Americans are doing lots of crazy experiments at even crazier places such as NASA in the hopes that HIT can be used on astronauts someday for travel to distant stars, etc.
It also means that HIT could potentially save people with fatal illnesses by "putting them to sleep" and decreasing the activity of their internal organs long enough for doctors to come up with a treatment.
Chemically, HIT is classified as an opioid... like morphine and heroin (which might explain why heroin overdoses can put a person into a coma.)
Does this make bears drug addicts? I think yes. MAYBE after they wake up from their drug-induced coma, I mean their hibernation, they go through a sort of withdrawal period. This would explain bear attacks on sleeping humans in their tents in the middle of the night. The poor bears are looking for a fix of something they can't identify.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Female vs. Male handwriting
Learned: Today. I wondered out-loud to myself in the car with Shan about this subject and of course wanted to look it up.
There seems to be a highly significant difference between the handwriting of females and males. This seems to be especially true in environments such as school. When children are toddlers, they don't write too often and, to put it plainly, all of their handwriting usually sucks. As life goes on, when people mature both physically and mentally, the difference in handwriting between the two genders seems to decrease. Regardless of gender, *cough* mature adults often adapt a more universal and *cough* mature style (often some kind of customized version of cursive).
However, throughout a person's educational career (give or take a couple years), it seems there is a noticeable difference between male and female handwriting. Exceptions aside, females seem to have a more expanded and clean style of handwriting, usually with more curves (whether it is actually cursive text, printing, or a combination of the two). Males, on the other hand, seem to have smaller handwriting made with more sharp strokes, which often results in a more sloppy final product.
What I've figured (seeing as there's no real evidence that I've come across, scientific or not, that explains why this happens) is that as young girls, females naturally have a head start on fine-motor skills, so perhaps both males and females continue writing as they did as children. Males continue with their cramped chicken scratch, and the females continue with their cutesy looping print. I think it's more due to a social component (the feminine desire to be non-threatening and pleasant.) To summarize, I'd definitely have to say it starts off with fine motor skills and the rate at which the differing genders mature, and then it progresses into a solely social component.
There seems to be a highly significant difference between the handwriting of females and males. This seems to be especially true in environments such as school. When children are toddlers, they don't write too often and, to put it plainly, all of their handwriting usually sucks. As life goes on, when people mature both physically and mentally, the difference in handwriting between the two genders seems to decrease. Regardless of gender, *cough* mature adults often adapt a more universal and *cough* mature style (often some kind of customized version of cursive).
However, throughout a person's educational career (give or take a couple years), it seems there is a noticeable difference between male and female handwriting. Exceptions aside, females seem to have a more expanded and clean style of handwriting, usually with more curves (whether it is actually cursive text, printing, or a combination of the two). Males, on the other hand, seem to have smaller handwriting made with more sharp strokes, which often results in a more sloppy final product.
What I've figured (seeing as there's no real evidence that I've come across, scientific or not, that explains why this happens) is that as young girls, females naturally have a head start on fine-motor skills, so perhaps both males and females continue writing as they did as children. Males continue with their cramped chicken scratch, and the females continue with their cutesy looping print. I think it's more due to a social component (the feminine desire to be non-threatening and pleasant.)
I think this handwriting gender split disappears as we get older. I definitely remember writing painfully cute notes in middle school. Now my handwriting more so resembles a neutral gender style. Kinda messy, but whatever.
Lexical Aversion
Learned: Tuesday night after mentioning that I hate particular words, I wondered why.
Good news! I'm not crazy.
The word panties has always sickened and revolted me to no end and I never understood why. Perhaps I even consider the word pussy (I can barely spell it without making a face) to be even more vile. I always impulsively have to verbalize my disgust every time someone in earshot uses either of those words. It even upsets me to read them.
Apparently, this is not an extremely unusual phenomenon and the words panties, along with moist and fleshy, are of it's most common victims.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004835.html
Strangely, I am not disgusted by the meaning of either of the words, like how some people are repulsed by the words slick or pus because it triggers thoughts of some kind of slime or nasty fluids. Instead, it's the actual pronunciation of those words that make me cringe. The act of saying the words or hearing them spoken gives me a very uneasy feeling. I have no problems with the words underwear or vagina, or any other words used to describe those things.
I always thought it was part of my minor ocd tendencies-- which I have come to realize (mostly through the observations of others) that I have a lot of them.
Good news! I'm not crazy.
The word panties has always sickened and revolted me to no end and I never understood why. Perhaps I even consider the word pussy (I can barely spell it without making a face) to be even more vile. I always impulsively have to verbalize my disgust every time someone in earshot uses either of those words. It even upsets me to read them.
Apparently, this is not an extremely unusual phenomenon and the words panties, along with moist and fleshy, are of it's most common victims.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language
Strangely, I am not disgusted by the meaning of either of the words, like how some people are repulsed by the words slick or pus because it triggers thoughts of some kind of slime or nasty fluids. Instead, it's the actual pronunciation of those words that make me cringe. The act of saying the words or hearing them spoken gives me a very uneasy feeling. I have no problems with the words underwear or vagina, or any other words used to describe those things.
I always thought it was part of my minor ocd tendencies-- which I have come to realize (mostly through the observations of others) that I have a lot of them.
Esperanto
Learned: Monday night, while researching the English language for no reason.
Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary(second) language in the world. In layman's terms, (which by the way comes from the term laity which means non-clergy. The term layman was established to differentiate between clergy and non-clergy members of society, and it was later defined to mean a person who is untrained or lacks knowledge of a subject) this completely made-up language was invented to create a neutral second language to be used between people of different native tongues throughout the world.
It was invented by L.L. Zamenhof in 1887 in the hopes of creating an easy and flexible universal second language to implement world peace and international understanding. He published a book in 1887 entitled Unua Libro which detailed the language.
The nature of the language itself is not related to any ethnic language directly. It is based on the Western European languages as a whole. It's considered fairly easy to learn and speak considering the exact pronunciation of every word. Many speakers of different languages will find that there are words in the Esperanto language almost identical to their own, which simplifies it quite a bit.
It is spoken by nearly 2 million people around the world and there are approximately 1,000 native speakers of the language.
Here are some useful phrases for your enjoyment, along with the incredibly easy pronunciation:
Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary(second) language in the world. In layman's terms, (which by the way comes from the term laity which means non-clergy. The term layman was established to differentiate between clergy and non-clergy members of society, and it was later defined to mean a person who is untrained or lacks knowledge of a subject) this completely made-up language was invented to create a neutral second language to be used between people of different native tongues throughout the world.
It was invented by L.L. Zamenhof in 1887 in the hopes of creating an easy and flexible universal second language to implement world peace and international understanding. He published a book in 1887 entitled Unua Libro which detailed the language.
The nature of the language itself is not related to any ethnic language directly. It is based on the Western European languages as a whole. It's considered fairly easy to learn and speak considering the exact pronunciation of every word. Many speakers of different languages will find that there are words in the Esperanto language almost identical to their own, which simplifies it quite a bit.
It is spoken by nearly 2 million people around the world and there are approximately 1,000 native speakers of the language.
- 1,000 have Esperanto as their native language
- 10,000 speak it fluently
- 100,000 can use it actively
- 1,000,000 understand a large amount passively
- 10,000,000 have studied it to some extent at some time.
Here are some useful phrases for your enjoyment, along with the incredibly easy pronunciation:
- Hello: Saluton /sa.ˈlu.ton/
- What is your name?: Kiel vi nomiĝas? /ˈki.el vi no.ˈmi.ʤas/
- My name is...: Mi nomiĝas... /mi no.ˈmi.ʤas/
- How much (is it/are they)?: Kiom (estas)? /ˈki.om ˈes.tas/
- Here you are: Jen /jen/
- Do you speak Esperanto?: Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton? /ˈʧu vi pa.ˈro.las es.pe.ˈran.ton/
- I do not understand you: Mi ne komprenas vin /mi ˈne kom.ˈpre.nas vin/
- I like this one: Ĉi tiu plaĉas al mi /ʧi ˈti.u ˈpla.ʧas al ˈmi/ or Mi ŝatas tiun ĉi /mi ˈʃa.tas ˈti.un ˈʧi/
- Thank you: Dankon /ˈdan.kon/
- You're welcome: Ne dankinde /ˈne dan.ˈkin.de/
- Please: Bonvolu /bon.ˈvo.lu/ or mi petas /mi ˈpe.tas/
- Here's to your health: Je via sano /je ˈvi.a ˈsa.no/
- Bless you!/Gesundheit!: Sanon! /ˈsa.non/
- Congratulations!: Gratulon! /ɡra.ˈtu.lon/
- Okay: Bone /ˈbo.ne/ or Ĝuste /ˈʤus.te/
- Yes: Jes /ˈjes/
- No: Ne /ˈne/
- It is a nice day: Estas bela tago /ˈes.tas ˈbe.la ˈta.ɡo/
- I love you: Mi amas vin /mi ˈa.mas vin/
- Goodbye: Ĝis (la) (revido) /ʤis la re.ˈvi.do/
- One beer, please: Unu bieron, mi petas. /ˈu.nu bi.ˈe.ron, mi ˈpe.tas/
- What is that?: Kio estas tio? /ˈki.o ˈes.tas ˈti.o/
- That is...: Tio estas... /ˈti.o ˈes.tas/
- How are you?: Kiel vi (fartas)? /ˈki.el vi ˈfar.tas/
- Good morning!: Bonan matenon! /ˈbo.nan ma.ˈte.non/
- Good evening!: Bonan vesperon! /ˈbo.nan ves.ˈpe.ron/
- Good night!: Bonan nokton! /ˈbo.nan ˈnok.ton/
- Peace!: Pacon! /ˈpa.tson/
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Schools stop concentrating on handwriting at around the time males are ready, fine-motor-wise, to pay attention to it.
The social aspect is pretty huge, though. I think of all those junior-high notes: girls present themselves through their handwriting, and the impulse is generally florid.