People who smoke take at least 10 years off their life expectancy, a new study has found.
On the other hand, those who kick the habit before age 40 reduce the excess risk of death associated with continued smoking by about 90%, according to the study in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
“Smoking is the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the U.S.,” says Tim McAfee, a co-author of the study. “We need to do more to educate the American people about these findings,” adds McAfee, director of the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study examined data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2004.
Women who smoke now die at a similar rate for men, the study also found. Previous research from the 1980s showed that women were less affected.
“Women now lose about 11 years of life expectancy if they smoke,” McAfee says. “Men lose about 12 years.” He adds that it is presumed that women’s smoking patterns are now more similar to men’s in terms of picking up the habit at younger ages and smoking a larger number of cigarettes.
McAfee says the study has global implications because most of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries, where cessation is less common.
A few days ago, we told you about the iPhone 5 and the lack of interest the product was generating. The iPhone 5 even came in worst among the top smart phones. And now this. The company’s shares fell over 6% today.
Apple Inc. shares tumbled more than 6 percent on Wednesday, chalking up their biggest single-day loss in four years as fears grow about intensifying competition in the mobile device market.
The sell-off, fueled by a forecast by an influential research firm that the iPad maker is continuing to cede ground to rival Google Inc. Android gadgets, rounded off a bleak 10 weeks for the most valuable U.S. company.
The stock was one of Wednesday’s biggest percentage losers on the S&P 500, shedding $35 billion of market value as more than 37 million shares changed hands — blowing past the company’s average daily volume over 50 days of 21 million.
Apple’s shares, once among the most desirable of portfolio holdings, have headed steadily south since September on growing uncertainty about the company’s ability to fend off unprecedented competition. This year saw a surge in sales of Amazon.com Inc.’s cheaper Kindle Fire and Microsoft Corp.’s first foray into the tablet market with its Surface.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics continues to chip away at the iPad’s dominance with its Galaxy line.
Let’s get real: Every character on The Walking Dead is up a zombie creek without a paddle to bash the undead’s heads in.
That being said, a new Season 3 trailer is here! And, predictably, things are looking grim. There’s creepy backwoods music, a prison surrounded by zombies, and some spooky-sexy eye patches.
On the plus side, looks like Andrea might try to take out the governor! While naked! For whatever reason! Yay!
Susan Rice. Remember her? She was one of the names being talked about to take over as Secretary of State when Hillary Clinton steps down later this month. But Mrs. Rice had to withdraw her name after Republicans, specifically John McCain and Lindsey Graham, placed a target on her back and relentlessly fired away, blaming her it seemed, for the events in Benghazi where four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens were killed.
The unwarranted attacks on Rice came after she went on television and repeated the talking points given to her about the events in Benghazi. Rice, who is the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, had no first hand knowledge of the events in Benghazi, but Republicans crucified her anyway, causing her to withdraw her name from consideration for Secretary of State. And it is noteworthy to point out that since Rice withdrew her name, the attacks mysteriously stopped.
For Months since the Benghazi September 11th, 2012 attacks, Republicans wanted blood. They wanted someone from the Obama Administration to pay for what happened in Libya. Their next target after Rice, was the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Previous attempts to get Mrs. Clinton to testify failed due to some health issues. After it was reported that Mrs. Clinton suffered a concussion in her home, Republicans tagged that news as her trying to avoid the testimony. They called it Benghazi-gate.
Well now the time has come. The climax of the Republican party is here. Hillary Clinton is testifying today about the events in Benghazi and Republicans are having the time of their lives and the time of their political career. This is their opportunity to bring the Obama administration to its knees. This is their chance to blame a high-ranking official for the four American deaths in Libya.
But their plan may not be working out just yet. Early reports from the testimony are showing that Mrs. Clinton is holding her own. Apparently she is not the raving lunatic Republicans would have us believe. Apparently she has a heart and although she acknowledged that things could have went differently, it seems that she and her department are doing everything possible, including implementing 29 recommendations from an independent review board, to make sure another future Benghazi does not happen.
Almost coming to tears at times, the Secretary of State tried to reassure the Republicans on the panel. “Make no mistake about it, we have got to have a better strategy,” she said. “I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews,’ she said. ‘I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters.”
A Republican representing Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, dug in.”There were systemic [security] deficiencies and I know you know that,” he said. “To my knowledge no one has been held accountable.”
‘These officials were screaming out for more security.
Mrs Clinton replied;
“We can’t think now about what could have, should have, would have happened. Benghazi didn’t happen in a vacuum,’ she said. ‘The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region. And instability in Mali has created an expanding safe haven for terrorists who look to extend their influence and plot further attacks of the kind we saw just last week in Algeria.”
Senator John McCain, the man responsible for the personally attacking Susan Rice and questioning her education and experience, called Benghazi “a cover-up from the beginning.” He is the newest member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
It is the hope of Republicans to take Hillary Clinton out now. She is the Democratic favorite to run for President in 2016 and tarnishing her exceptional job as Secretary of State they hope, will be a deciding factor for many Americans if she runs. But so far, these hearings are not turning out the way Republicans plan. They are coming off as a group of hypocrites, who ignored the attacks on September 11th where almost three thousand people died in New York, focused instead on Benghazi where four Americans were killed.
If they can ask about security now, why shouldn’t they answer that same question about September 11, 2001? After all, there are documented proof that their president, George W. Bush, had intelligence that Bin Laden was about to attack.
How do you suppress a controversy? You take control of it and the message. That’s exactly what Beyance is trying to do after it was revealed that she lip-sync the national anthem at President Obama‘s second historical inauguration. The famous R&B singer is taking control of this controversy by sharing pictures of her rehearsing the song for all to see.
I watched as Wayne LaPierre of the NRA rushed to the microphone to once again, try to defend the rights of the Sandy Hook shooter, the rights of the Colorado movie theater shooter, the rights of shooter who used his semi-automatic gun to put a bullet in the head of Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords. And I couldn’t help but feeling sorry for Mr. LaPierre – a man who, with this new speech, confirmed that the NRA’s back is up against the wall, and LaPierre was feeling the pressure from his bosses – the gun manufactures.
LaPierre felt the need to focus on one sentence from the President’s inaugural speech. As he stood at the podium, his eyes darting all around the room filled with his supporters, LaPierre repeated this line from the President;
We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name calling as reasoned debate. We must act! We must act knowing that out work will be imperfect. We must act knowing that today’s victories will be only impartial. And that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence, to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
LaPierre focused on the first part of that statement, we cannot mistake absolutism for principle. He explained his interpretation of what he thought the President meant. “Barack Obama is saying, that the only principal way to make children safe is to make lawful citizens less safe and violent criminals more safe. That’s what it amounts to,” he said. He got a giggle and scattered applauds from his supporters with the line that “criminals couldn’t care less about Barack Obama’s so-called principles. That’s why they’re called criminals.”
LaPierre then attacked some of the common sense Executive Actions taken by the President last Tuesday. Executive Actions that a majority of NRA members agree with. He continued;
Forcing law-abiding people to fork over excessive fees to exercise their rights. Forcing parents to fill out forms to leave a family heirloom to a loved one. Standing in line filling out a bunch of bureaucratic paperwork, just so a grandfather could give a grandson a Christmas gift.
LaPierre then went back to his same old scare tactic, that “there’s only two reasons for a federal list on gun owners, to tax them, or to take them.” To this line, LaPierre got more scattered applauds from his supporters.
The rest of his speech centered on his assertion and the NRA’s favorite method to keep NRA members in check, that the President was coming to take the guns. He warned the President against “attacking clearly defined absolutes, in favor of his principles.”
The NRA waited a little over 24 hours before tossing LaPierre out in front of the cameras to double down on their scare campaign. They looked at the President’s second inauguration and felt what a majority of Americans felt, that times are changing and changing for the better. Wayne LaPierre and the gun manufacturers felt their grip on the American people slipping, their scare hold on the Second Amendment slowly evaporating. And whipping up another hysteria that the government was coming for your guns has always been a marvelous way to boost their membership and sell more guns.
There are some really sick people out there. This one is from KTLA news in California, who reports that a male nurse at the Sherman Oaks Hospital has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a corpse.
Alejandro Razo, 61, was arrested on Sunday on a state Health and Safety Code violation after being caught by security guards, police said.
He is free on $20,000 bail and is due in court on Feb. 11, according to online records.
The L.A. County coroner will perform an autopsy on the body, police said. The findings could determine if more charges will be filed.
The coroner’s office declined further comment on the case, citing a security hold.
Were Michelle Obama’s scathing eye rolls during the inaugural luncheon Monday the result of a joke by House Speaker John Boehner over her husband’s cigarette habit?
That’s what expert lip reader Larry Wenig believes after watching a video recording of the exchange between Mrs Obama and Boehner, according to CBS’ Inside Edition.
‘According to our lip reader, Boehner asked Obama if he had had a chance to have a cigarette before the luncheon,’ Inside Edition reports.
Wenig quoted Boehner, an avid smoker, as saying, ‘Somebody won’t let you do it,’ getting in a dig at the First Lady’s power over her husband.
It was at that point that Michelle rolls her eyes.
Wenig’s theory could not be confirmed. MailOnline reached out to three lip readers who said it was too difficult to read what was said during the exchange.
Regardless, it was clear that Michelle Obama was not impressed with whatever it was that Boehner said, as a camera caught her twice rolling her eyes at the congressman when he tried to engage her in conversation.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that senate leaders are getting close to a deal on filibuster reform and the chamber will take up the issue soon, probably after taking up a bill to award $60 billion in aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
“Once we complete that vital legislation,” Reid said of the Sandy bill, “the Senate will take action to make this institution that we all love — the United States Senate — work more effectively.”
“I’m confident we’ll reach an agreement that allows the Senate to operate more effectively in coming months,” he said in remarks on the Senate floor.
Democrats have been vowing to reform the Senate’s rules to make it harder for the minority party to bog down action by requiring nearly every bill to win 60 votes and clear a Republican filibuster. They believe the filibuster, once a legislative tool invoked only rarely, has become abused. Republicans say it is their only way to get a voice in a chamber where Democrats routinely prevent the GOP from offering amendments to key legislation.
I mean come on! Dude spent 30 minutes ranting and raving about some nonsense pertaining to war. I know the organizers of the inaugural event tried to present a broad coalition of different artists and styles, but they should have known that having Lupe Fiasco at an Obama event would be a time bomb waiting to explode!
The rapper had been repeating politically charged lyrics for an unusually long time when event officials forced him to stop, according to various attendees.
“So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn’t vote for Obama and eventually was told to move on to the next song,” Josh Rogin, a reporter at Foreign Policy,tweeted from the bash hosted by StartUp RockOn. “Lupe refused to move to the next song so a team of security guards came on stage and told him to go.”
Video of the incident posted online shows Lupe rapping part of the song “Words I Never Said” before he’s asked to stop. “Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist,” he says. “Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say s—t. That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either.”
One day after President Barack Obama’s second inauguration, a small bank in northwest Kansas will hold a different kind of celebration for Mitt Romney.
A photo of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee will be added Tuesday to Norton State Bank’s “They Also Ran Gallery.” Coffee and cookies will be served during a free reception.
Romney’s portrait and biography will be the 60th in the bank’s gallery of presidential losers. The first was that of Thomas Jefferson, who lost to John Adams in 1796 before defeating Adams for the presidency in 1800.
A bank president started the gallery in 1965. It is in an upper floor of the building and attracts a few hundred visitors a year.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
