Jules Siegel

a writer and graphic designer whose work has appeared over the years in Playboy, Best American Short Stories, Library of America's "Writing Los Angeles," and many other publications. He administers newsroom-l.

‘Smoke-free’ laws lead to fewer hospitalizations and deaths

Nov 072012
 

By  Elizabeth Fernandez (EurekaNet) Laws that end smoking at work and other public places result in significantly fewer hospitalizations for heart attacks, strokes, asthma and other respiratory conditions, a new UCSF analysis has found.

The research provides evidence that smoke-free laws that cover workplaces, restaurants and bars have the biggest impacts on hospitalizations, reduce health care costs and also raise quality of life, the researchers said.

The authors found that comprehensive smoke-free laws were followed rapidly by significantly lower rates of hospital admissions than before the laws went into force:

  • A 15 percent drop in heart attack hospitalizations;
  • A 16 percent drop in stroke hospitalizations;
  • A 24 percent drop in hospitalizations for respiratory diseases including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

via ‘Smoke-free’ laws lead to fewer hospitalizations and deaths.

 November 7, 2012  Posted by at 7:08 pm Comments Off

Parrot in captivity spontaneously makes tools and modifies them

Nov 072012
 

By John Timmer (Ars Technica) Tool use was once thought to be one of the defining features of humans, but examples of tool use were eventually observed in primates and other mammals. But the biggest surprise came when birds were observing tools in the wild. After all, birds are the only surviving dinosaurs, and mammals and dinosaurs hadn’t shared a common ancestor for hundreds of millions of years. In the wild, tool use has been limited to the corvids (crows and jays), which show a variety of other complex behaviors—they’ll remember your face and recognize the passing of their dead.

Parrots, in contrast, have mostly been noted for their linguistic skills, and there has only been very limited evidence that they use anything resembling a tool in the wild (primarily, they seem to use external objects to position nuts while feeding). But a captive cockatoo has now been observed using multiple steps to process a tool, behavior that appears to be completely spontaneous. And it has never been seen in this species in the wild.

via Parrot in captivity manufactures tools, something not seen in the wild | Ars Technica.

 November 7, 2012  Posted by at 8:38 am Comments Off

New study finds poverty leads people to focus on short term goals while ignoring the long view

Nov 062012
 

By Bob Yirka (Phys.org) A new study done by a team of researchers with business, psychology and economics backgrounds suggests that people who live in poverty tend to make poor long term financial decisions because their economic situation makes it difficult to focus on anything but the near term, which might explain seemingly contradictory behavior exhibited by poor people, such as taking out high interest loans.

via New study finds poverty leads people to focus on short term goals while ignoring the long view.

 November 6, 2012  Posted by at 9:15 am Comments Off

WND: Drones will hunt right wingers down like dogs if Obama is re-elected

 Government, Marching Morons, Meltdowns, Paranoia, Politics, The Future, The Ruling Class  Comments Off
Nov 042012
 

By Booth Gunter (Salon) Hunted Down Like Dogs. Joseph Farah, who leads the far-right, conspiracy-mongering website WorldNetDaily, is under no delusions about his fate. “If [Obama is] re-elected, it’s gonna be war,” said Farah, who swears he saw a drone surveilling his Northern Virginia property. “We will be hunted down like dogs.”

via Six most paranoid fears for Obama’s second term – Salon.com.

A single denialist is keeping climate change off the Sandy Wikipedia page

Nov 042012
 

By Dan Nosowitz (PopSci) But for days, the internet’s most authoritative article on a major tropical storm system in 2012 was written by a man with no meteorological training who thinks climate change is unproven and fought to remove any mention of it.

via Meet The Climate Change Denier Who Became The Voice Of Hurricane Sandy On Wikipedia | Popular Science.

 November 4, 2012  Posted by at 10:55 am Comments Off
 Older Entries  Newer Entries