This is not photoshopped: Marilyn Monroe the bodybuilder
Taken for a 1952 photo essay in Life, this picture was one of a series that never got published in the original article:
Continue reading →Category Archives: Health
The war on smokers reaches a new level
First we had the hazards of smoking itself. They are real and well-documented, but affect only the smoker, who can sometimes be persuaded to quit after learning about the dangers but sometimes chooses to continue the habit. Then there were … Continue reading →
Fukushima cancer risk negligible
It turns out that the amount of radiation exposure from the Fukushima reactor accident and any resultant projected increase in cancer cases has been minimal. But people in the comments section at the article refuse to believe this, so strong … Continue reading →
So, you think you were admitted to MIT?
Not so fast, kids, not so fast: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology sent an e-mail to prospective students, erroneously telling them in a line at the bottom that they had been admitted… The mix-up happened when MIT combined two separate … Continue reading →
The mammogram study and the NY Times
Here’s an article in the NY Times about a new mammogram study that’s gotten a lot of attention. And here’s the study itself. Compare and contrast. The first sentence of the Times article: One of the largest and most meticulous … Continue reading →
The case against orange juice
If you’ve been reading this blog a long, long time you may remember that I hate juice. All juice. As I wrote in 2009: To make matters worse, I don’t like fruit juice. Even orange juice. Or maybe especially orange … Continue reading →
US abortion rate falls…
…to its lowest point since 1973. That seems like unequivocally good news. The study didn’t examine why it happened, however. Theories: better long-term contraception methods, hard economic times, tighter laws restricting access to abortion in some situations, and greater awareness … Continue reading →
Thinking about swallowing a tapeworm in order to lose weight?
Well, don’t bother: you’ll probably gain weight instead. Another myth shattered. And boy, what some people won’t do for science.
Continue reading →Giving people Medicaid does not decrease their ER visits
According to a study of the Medicaid expansion in Oregon—which offers particularly fertile ground for research because new Medicaid participants were selected randomly from among those eligible—giving people Medicaid increases ER use, rather than decreasing it as Obama and the … Continue reading →
By the way, in case you were wondering…
…this is the rule in California about illegal immigrants and Medicaid (known as “Medi-Cal” in that state): For Medi-Cal, immigration status only affects the scope of service. The services that Medi-Cal provides to undocumented immigrants include, but are not limited … Continue reading →
Snow gets in your eyes
How would we know if we see exactly the same way other people do? After all, we can’t step momentarily into someone else’s brain. One of those visual differences among people appears to be the existence of something called “visual … Continue reading →
The [fill in the blank] of the long-distance runner
How would you fill in the blank for this ultra-marathoner who ran 311 miles in 86 hours without sleeping? I’d start with “OCD” (obsessive-compulsive disorder). It seems nearly insane to me to do this sort of thing. But then again, … Continue reading →