While I am not a big fan of shifting to an economic argument for things that are already plenty bad for other better reasons (see diversity in the workplace, immigration policy, healthcare, etc.), this article by Austin Frakt on the economic cost of pollution reports on the results of a number of studies linking pollution to low performance in work and school. This study of baseball umpires was particularly troubling:
Pollution may also affect the quality of work, which is much harder to measure. An intriguing study in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists got at this issue by examining how accurately baseball umpires called balls and strikes under different pollution conditions.
Since 2008, pitch calls have been checked by Major League Baseball with an electronic system. In a typical game, an umpire makes 140 ball/strike calls. When there was a 150 percent increase over average carbon monoxide levels or the same increase in small particulate matter, the study found an average of 1.4 additional incorrect calls. Levels of pollution that high occur in about one in 10 games.
Imagine what the rest of us, especially kids, are getting wrong when we’re in polluted areas (i.e. many American cities). (via @tylercowen)
Trump Admin Tries to Bury 1,656-Page Climate Report Warning of Devastating Health Impacts of Warming
She used to smoke–and I assume she’s no longer smoking since she’s pregnant–but then she also didn’t give a shit about visiting countries with Zika warnings, so hey, maybe she still does smoke. Nobody really knows for sure…
But, yeah, I’ve heard the comments that she is very thin before. She looks more fleshed out now that she’s pregnant than she did before, but when you consider that the camera “adds 10 pounds,” then she probably still does look pretty skinny.
1. She looks pregnant. You can see some weight gain in her face and boobs. Yes, she sticks out her belly for maximum press coverage, but she looks pregnant.
2. I suspect she lied about how far along she was when she announced. I think she was 10 weeks maximum, if that, when they announced. I think that has thrown people for a loop since the announcement said she had passed 12 weeks when she probably hadn’t, which confuses people because she doesn’t look that pregnant. She said she was second trimester during the tour and she definitely didn’t look it.
3. I don’t exactly believe the Suits rumors at this point. I need more proof than a closed Facebook group. That kind of thing–IF it’s true–won’t be verified until, perhaps, years later.
4. Yes, the British royal family acknowledged the pregnancy after it was announced. Harry & Megs just didn’t get the glowing congratulations that Will & Kate or Zara & Mike received.
5. Megs went to “The Secret” church, remember? It’s literally about thinking about what you want. Your actions don’t seem to matter as much as long as you’re thoughts are about what you want. Megs probably thinks that as long as she thinks about having a baby then the baby will automatically appear and be healthy.
6. Janetti posts all sorts of shit. Just because he posts a joke doesn’t make it true.
7. Like AHPF said a few weeks ago, Megs has no problem flouting the rules because she’s pregnant and knows that she has her “meal ticket.” Megs is legit pregnant.
8. I’m sure the RF paid for the IVF. The IVF was cheaper than her tour wardrobe when you think about it.
9. The tour pregnancy announcement solely has to do with the famewhore qualities that have been exhibited this entire relationship. No surprise there when you think about it.
10. Dumb people do dumb things all the time. Yes, it is hard to understand when you have a functioning brain that can understand logic and that actions have consequences. But dumb people–specifically the two dunderheads planning on becoming parents–tend to make dumb decisions. Everything that has happened with this relationship–and particularly this pregnancy–is an epic tale of DUMB! Find out you’re pregnant? Drink champagne without food on a flight to Canada. Feel stressed going to a night time engagement while stoking pregnancy rumors? (Allegedly) Take some Xanax for a nice glazed eye look. Worried about changing your trademark hair look because of some baby growing in your womb? Screw that and straighten your hair for the umpteenth time again. Worried about some weird jungle virus (Zika) that could damage your baby’s health? Pfft. Whatever.
Oh, I think she’s pregnant. I don’t think Megs is as far along as she said she was when it was announced. I think she was probably 10 weeks along maximum when it was announced, and I’m not super convinced she was even that far along when she announced.
I suspect Will and Kate’s attitude probably has to do with a number of things, such as:
Will and Kate have a number of reasons not to be super happy about the situation.
I suspect what galls people behind the scenes even further is Megs lack of regular health precautions while pregnant. What is known and suspected at this point includes:
Drinking (champagne without food on a solo flight to Canada)
Partying at Soho House, which includes more drinking.
And that’s just what I can think of offhand. Will and Kate likely know more, and they’re probably appalled. They know what it means to keep the mother and the baby healthy during a pregnancy. Megs clearly isn’t doing the same. Meg’s recklessness is appalling. And it clearly speaks to the reckless attitude she would have when she’s a mother.
So I’m not surprised that Will and Kate haven’t issued a public congratulations. They’re probably still bracing for impact for another episode of assholery from the Duchess of Mean!
I just went it read it. It’s crazy how there’s such negative cards surrounding her pregnancy. I kept getting the same message she got over and over again. I even went back in my old readings on it and looked and got the same message over and over again then too. If she doesn’t rest, and I mean REST, like go away for a couple of months (which attention-obsessed Meg will never do) it will miscarry, period. Not trying to be rude when I say that but this pregnancy seems to be more high-risk than expected and if she doesn’t slow down and her and Harry don’t start listening to the doctors orders instead of thinking they know better and making continuous foolish decisions, well you know the outcome.
She thought she had the stamina. Uh….NO you dont sweetheart. She has freakishly thin legs and no muscle definition, so carrying a child will drain you faster than a normal 5’4 woman. She also doesn’t come off as the healthiest person despite what she said on her blog. I’m willing to bet her body has been telling her to slow the hell down since before the wedding, but she thinks she superwoman and has to prove people wrong. You cant do that crap when it involves another human being.
Oh, you can do that crap. It just catches up with you in different ways.
P2: My main issue is most people have to try to conceive for 6m to a year before extra steps are taken. Usually clomid comes next. Then there’s the fact that if for whatever reason MM already knew her chances were decreased, she’d have to go through egg retrieval and if she really does have fertility issues she’d more than likely have to go through multiple retrieval processes. After that they’d have to see how many eggs are actually viable.
P3: Then she’d have to go through treatments which usually take 6-8 weeks. So unless they started this process way before the wedding, I’m calling bs. If this is a PR stunt to make her seem more relatable or add to her damsel story, it’s a really crappy thing to do. Oh, and if she were having twins as small as she is she’d be way bigger at 4 months. Unless she’s not really that far along.
Maybe, but according to the blinds she’d already been told she’d have trouble conceiving. In that case, trying for six months would not have made sense.
Also, if the rumors are true that Harry’s fertility is impaired, then they would likely go to IVF since male factor infertility is one of the reasons people use IVF, even when the mom’s fertility is fine.
Megsy shouldn’t be going to Fiji and Tonga. She should just park her ass at the Invictus Games for a week and cheer the Invictus competitors on the entire time. Every day. It would probably be less stressful on her body.
She doesn’t want to do that of course. She probably wants to show off whatever dresses she’s already procured for those visits. So instead, she’ll shove her body off into different time zones and several thousand miles of travel so her body has to adjust to a completely different environment. And then do it again when traveling back to Sydney.
As far as I’m concerned, she’s put her baby in the danger zone for all of November and into early December. And that’s because of the drinking, the travel, the possible Zika complications–which include pesticides used to combat Zika–and the probably not following other doctor’s orders such as taking it easy, aka rest.
If she can make it to Christmas without major complications, then perhaps Harry and Megs’ crotch fruit will live to see the light of day. But I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.
In any case, it doesn’t sound like she’s feeling well. I’m still kind of baffled as to why she’s doing this. She pulls ranks on stuff like airplanes, security details, pictures and crap like that, but doesn’t avail herself of the privileges of the position when important stuff like pets and kids is concerned. It’s bizarre.
My guess is that she didn’t realize how the pregnancy would affect her, so she told them that of course she would go to Australia and handle a packed schedule and a Zika tour leg.
I’d throw in a complete lack of humility for the root of her problem. If she had more humility, she wouldn’t be engaging in such arrogant, dumb behavior.
Nah she’s truly pregnant. In my baby reading I’m doing on them, Fool Reversed came up, meaning making lots of foolish decisions not on purpose. I think that’s what’s happening here.
Yeah. I think she’s truly pregnant. But that doesn’t make watching this train wreck fun.
Particularly now that we know she drank publicly a glass of champagne on a plane while pregnant. How many other times has she drunk champagne since she’s been pregnant? I’m not a beer person, but beer probably would be better to drink since the alcohol content is lower. Beer is usually about 5% alcohol, but champagne is 12% alcohol. Sheesh!
The Ireland drinking may have been before she found out, but the Canada trip was in August (and Jess told BS Weekly that Meghan told her then) and the Soho House party was in September.
That’s FOUR sightings in a couple of months, which is pretty credible to me. I don’t understand why people are so surprised that someone who is shrugging off Zika virus risk and over scheduling herself during a high-risk pregnancy is also pretty laissez faire about drinking.
When she was 16, she moved with her parents from Vermont to Florida to attend a performing arts high school. Soon after she tried OxyContin for the first time at a high school party, and so began a relationship with opiates that would dominate the rest of her life.
It is impossible to capture a person in an obituary, and especially someone whose adult life was largely defined by drug addiction. To some, Maddie was just a junkie – when they saw her addiction, they stopped seeing her. And what a loss for them. Because Maddie was hilarious, and warm, and fearless, and resilient. She could and would talk to anyone, and when you were in her company you wanted to stay. In a system that seems to have hardened itself against addicts and is failing them every day, she befriended and delighted cops, social workers, public defenders and doctors, who advocated for and believed in her ‘til the end. She was adored as a daughter, sister, niece, cousin, friend and mother, and being loved by Madelyn was a constantly astonishing gift.
This is powerfully straightforward writing by Linsenmeir’s family…my condolences are with them. They devoted a few paragraphs at the end of her obit to address addiction and its place in our society:
If you are reading this with judgment, educate yourself about this disease, because that is what it is. It is not a choice or a weakness. And chances are very good that someone you know is struggling with it, and that person needs and deserves your empathy and support.
If you work in one of the many institutions through which addicts often pass – rehabs, hospitals, jails, courts – and treat them with the compassion and respect they deserve, thank you. If instead you see a junkie or thief or liar in front of you rather than a human being in need of help, consider a new profession.
I don’t think she’s faking. I don’t think her famewhore self cares because she thinks this is her moment to shine on the world stage. Fetus health and safety be damned.
Oh, I bet she thinks this was perfect timing because now she will get tons of press for her tour.
Oh, I’m so sorry you went through that. I had a miscarriage after a bout of dengue fever, so I can’t even fathom someone taking this kind of risk. Heck, they must have begun TTC-ing immediately after they signed up for the Fiji tour. He’s an idiot and she’s totally nuts.
I was sure she’d find a way, and I was hoping she’d at least be a somewhat responsible mother. However, the baby was just conceived and she’s already putting it at risk, so yikes.
Well, they have a point. She’s already in the at-risk age bracket for all kinds of developmental issues, which is why I don’t understand why she would go out of her way INCREASE the risk.
Oh, check out the royal source saying that every precaution will be taken because “the royal couple’s health is naturally of the utmost importance.” Uh, aren’t you leaving someone out?
“After battling PPD of my own I spoke to other mothers about their experiences. Since I got the courage to speak about it, I found that others where relieved to find out it’s likewise for a lot of mothers. The Duchess’ initiative (‘Heads together’) made me aware of the ‘communication is key’-part and I felt al lot more normal and not so guilty. I wonder if Kate feels/felt the same with any birth and so she started all this.“ – Submitted by Anonymous
Um, no. Zika didn’t become epidemic until 2015 in Brazil, and the connection to microencephaly wasn’t discovered until 2016, mainly because you needed a HUGE epidemic to get enough cases to make the connection clear. They still don’t know why it causes the microencephaly or what other effects it (or other mosquito borne diseases) may have on an unborn child.
As a former resident of a Zika zone, I know these mosquito-borne viruses are difficult to predict. They will be dormant for years and then become epidemic and develop new traits. Dengue, for example, is usually a strong flu, but I had a cousin who almost died from a hemorrhagic dengue strain in the 80s. Chinkungunya is usually just a bad cold, but my aunt is still dealing with chronic arthritic paralysis from a weirdo strain that hit my hometown in the 2000s. Zika is usually a slight fever, but I have another cousin who ended up with Guillain Barre syndrome after infection, a side-effect that is even rarer than microenchephaly.
The incidence of side-effects like microenchephaly, Guillain Barre, and chronic arthralgia is often cited as a few thousand out of a million. That sounds small, but when you are dealing with a mosquito-borne disease epidemic EVERYONE gets it and the cases pile up quickly.
Yeah, if you live there, you kind of suck it up and deal with the risk as best you can, but no one thinks of it as “first world hype.” Yes, the diseases are a way of life in the tropics, like tropical storms. But we all know there’s a risk that this will be year that It’s not just a storm, but a category 5 hurricane that destroys everything. Likewise, we all know that there’s risk that our loved one will be the unlucky someone who gets internal bleeding, paralysis, or congenital deformations, instead of the annoying cold everyone else got.
How Monsanto Plants Stories, Suppresses Science & Silences Dissent to Sell a Cancer-Linked Chemical
In 2014, the American Library Association found
that about 23 percent of all public libraries offered a fitness class
in the last year, while another survey from the same time learned that
37 percent of the libraries they reached out to offered yoga. More than
60 percent of North Carolina library systems offer
fitness classes. There’s a lot left to understand about how and why
librarians focusing on physical health and wellness, but the most
important thing to know is also the most obvious: The classes are
needed.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends an average of eight hours of sleep per night for adults, but sleep scientist Matthew Walker says that too many people are falling short of the mark.
“Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent gain,” Walker says. “Many people walk through their lives in an underslept state, not realizing it.”
Walker is the director the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He points out that lack of sleep — defined as six hours or fewer — can have serious consequences. Sleep deficiency is associated with problems in concentration, memory and the immune system, and may even shorten lifespan.
“Every disease that is killing us in developed nations has causal and significant links to a lack of sleep,” he says. “So that classic maxim that you may [have] heard that you can sleep when you’re dead, it’s actually mortally unwise advice from a very serious standpoint.”
Walker discusses the importance of sleep — and offers strategies for getting the recommended eight hours — in his new book, Why We Sleep.
We’re rebroadcasting this interview today. Sleep tight!
ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis jury on Thursday awarded nearly $4.7 billion in total damages to 22 women and their families after they claimed asbestos in Johnson & Johnson talcum powder contributed to their ovarian cancer in the first case against the company that focused on asbestos in the powder.
The jury announced the $4.14 billion award in punitive damages shortly after awarding $550 million in compensatory damages after a six-week trial in St. Louis Circuit Court.
Johnson & Johnson called the verdict the result of an unfair process that allowed the women to sue the company in Missouri despite most of them not living in the state and said it would appeal, as it has in previous cases that found for women who sued the company.
“Johnson & Johnson remains confident that its products do not contain asbestos and do not cause ovarian cancer and intends to pursue all available appellate remedies,” spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said.
Mark Lanier, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that Johnson & Johnson had covered up evidence of asbestos in their products for more than 40 years.
Medical experts testified during the trial that asbestos, a known carcinogen, is intermingled with mineral talc, which is the primary ingredient in Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products. The plaintiffs’ lawyers said asbestos fibers and talc particles were found in the ovarian tissues of many of the women.
“We hope this verdict will get the attention of the J&J board and that it will lead them to better inform the medical community and the public about the connection between asbestos, talc, and ovarian cancer,” Lanier said. “The company should pull talc from the market before causing further anguish, harm, and death from a terrible disease.”
During closing arguments on Wednesday, Lanier told the jurors this case was the first where jurors saw documents showing that Johnson & Johnson knew its products contained asbestos and didn’t warn consumers, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The company has been sued by more than 9,000 women who claim its talcum powder contributed to their ovarian cancer. Johnson & Johnson has consistently denied that its products can be linked to the cancer.
Goodrich said the verdict awarding all the women the same amount despite differences in their circumstances showed evidence in the case was overwhelmed by prejudice created when so many plaintiffs are allowed to sue the company in one lawsuit.
“Every verdict against Johnson & Johnson in this court that has gone through the appeals process has been reversed and the multiple errors present in this trial were worse than those in the prior trials which have been reversed,” she said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said punitive damage awards are limited by state law to five times the amount of compensatory damages awarded and defense lawyers probably would file a motion to reduce the award.
Six of the 22 plaintiffs in the latest trial have died from ovarian cancer. Five plaintiffs were from Missouri, with others from states that include Arizona, New York, North Dakota, California, Georgia, the Carolinas and Texas.
One of the plaintiffs, Gail Ingham, 73, of O’Fallon, Missouri, told The Post-Dispatch that she was diagnosed with stage-3 ovarian cancer in 1985 and underwent chemotherapy treatments, surgeries and drug treatments for a year before being declared cancer free in the early 1990s.
Ingham, who used baby powder for decades, said she joined the lawsuit because women who use baby powder “need to know what’s in there. They need to know what’s going on. Women need to know because they’re putting it on their babies.”
It is unclear why human breast milk stands out among that of other mammals. It has five times as many types of H.M.O.s as cow’s milk, and several hundred times the quantity. Even chimp milk is impoverished compared with ours.
“[A]nything from infertility to hair loss and relationship problems…” LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.
So, do they not have any kind of HIPPA laws in the UK regarding acupuncture? I’m wondering how he gets around that kind of thing with an article like this…
Also, for Harry’s hair loss, he’d probably have to see an acupuncturist that either specializes in fine grain moxa treatments or microneedling. Doesn’t look like this guy does either of those two things.
I hope you can answer these questions. How can PH/MM go through fertility treatments/IVF if they are (allegedly) using drugs? –> They aren’t frequent users. I don’t have a specific knowledge about, but I presume it does, since a drug acts on your central nervous system, and this net (CND) regulates your entire body. She was yripping with and that dress last night. Because she was drunk as a cow 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Also, why do you think MM will bolt? Imo, she will never have a better life that what she has now. As the wife of the 6th (5th) in line to the throne she wouldn’t get a huge divorce settlement (would she?). –> She is a fame whore, but I doubt she will please (did you realize that her career are only tips in tiny movies and/or movies that you never heard about? And deal with the bad press and scrutiny. She fucked io twice with HM (‘something borrowed’ gate and ‘curtsey’ gate) and that is something that the journos will make sure that she learns. 😘😘😘😘
Fewer GPs are choosing to work in poorer areas but more are joining surgeries that look after wealthier populations, new official figures reveal.
The exodus, uncovered by Labour MP Frank Field, is exacerbating the existing “under-doctoring” of deprived populations – the lack of family doctors in places where poorer people live.
Experts said the widening divide between rich and poor areas in GP numbers – which is one of England’s starkest health inequalities – would force the least well-off to wait longer for an appointment, even though they are generally sicker and die earlier than the rest of the population.
“A decade ago the country was beginning to make some serious inroads into the under-doctoring of the poorest areas. What these grim figures show is that in recent years that progress has not only stalled, but actually gone into reverse,” Field told the Observer.
“The most worrying trend here is the number of GPs ceasing to serve people towards the bottom of the pile, while at the same time people in the wealthiest areas have benefited from an even better service. Vulnerable people are having to suffer in silence without being able to see a GP.
“Here’s another example of everything going in the wrong direction if our goal is to equalise health opportunities and outcomes. It is a new appalling face of inequality in modern Britain.”
There were 8,207 GPs working in areas containing the most deprived quintile of the population in England in 2008. But by last year that number had fallen to 7,696 – a drop of 511 – according to the response to a written parliamentary question Field asked recently.
But over the same decade the number of family doctors working in the most prosperous fifth of the population increased from 4,058 to 4,192 – a rise of 134, public health minister Steve Brine told Field.
Fuck keeping affluent people alive, help us instead
House of Brat 