[Darenet]
Second-hand smoke is good for you
Marijuana Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer, UCLA Expert Dr. Tashkin Concludes Protective Effect "Not Unreasonable"
Marijuana smoking -"even heavy long-term use"- does not cause cancer of the lung, upper airways, or esophagus, Dr. Donald Tashkin reported at this year's meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society...Stephen Sidney examined the files of 64,000 Kaiser patients and found that marijuana users didn't develop lung cancer at a higher rate or die earlier than non-users. Of five smaller studies on the question, only two -involving a total of about 300 patients- concluded that marijuana smoking causes lung cancer. Tashkin decided to settle the question by conducting a large, population-based, case-controlled study."Our major hypothesis," he told the ICRS, "was that heavy, long-term use of marijuana will increase the risk of lung and upper-airways cancers."
The Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance program provided Tashkin's team with the names of 1,209 L.A. residents aged 59 or younger with cancer (611 lung, 403 oral/pharyngeal, 90 laryngeal, 108 esophageal). Interviewers collected extensive lifetime histories of marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and other drug use, and data on diet, occupational exposures, family history of cancer, and various "socio-demographic factors." Exposure to marijuana was measured in joint years (joints per day x years that number smoked)...
There was time for only one question, said the moderator, and San Francisco oncologist Donald Abrams, M.D., was already at the microphone: "You don't see any positive correlation, but in at least one category, it almost looked like there was a negative correlation, i.e., a protective effect. Could you comment on that?" [Abrams was referring to Tashkin's lung-cancer-
only data for marijuana-only smokers in 1-10 j-yrs category.] "Yes," said Tashkin. "The odds ratios are less than one almost consistently, and in one category that relationship was significant, but I think that it would be difficult to extract from these data the conclusion that marijuana is protective against lung cancer. But that is not an unreasonable hypothesis."
And this one...
State rules marijuana smoke is a carcinogen, may require dispensaries to post warnings
Joints and baggies sold at California's medical marijuana dispensaries will soon carry a new warning label. Next to tags like "Purple Haze" and "White Widow" will be the advisory: Contents may cause cancer when smoked.
On Friday, California added marijuana smoke to its official list of known carcinogens, joining the ranks of arsenic, asbestos and DDT. Pot brownies, lollipops and other non-inhalables are not affected by the new ruling.
Scientists found the pungent smoke shares many of the same harmful properties as tobacco smoke, warranting its inclusion on the Proposition 65 warning list. The law requires the state to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity, and businesses and government agencies must post warnings when they use such chemicals or sell products containing them.
"Marijuana smoke is a mixture of different chemicals, and a number of those were already on the Prop. 65 list," said Allan Hirsch, chief deputy director of the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which made the designation.
http://www.mercuryn
ews.com/centralc oast/ci_12654249 ?nclick_check= 1
Okay, that last one was boring too, but it was also absolutely insane. Ignoring the science showing pot may prevent cancer, they declare it a carcinogen because it "shares many of the same harmful properties as tobacco smoke." That doesn't prove anything. Here's how their logic works.
You can make orange juice from oranges. Oranges are a fruit. Apples are also a fruit, therefore you can make orange juice out of apples.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ted Rall: SORRY, MR. BUSH
I miss Bush. Stop the presses and shut off the RSS feeds: the bashiest of the Bush-bashers is starting to appreciate the Exile of Crawford.
Tom Jacobs: Getting Laid-Off May Lead to Early Death -- But There Are Ways to Cushion the Severe Health Impact of Job Loss (Miller-McCune.com; Posted on Alternet.org)
Studies show that the current economic climate may be eroding months or even years from the lives of those on the bleeding edge of insecurity
Sandy Stonesifer: Charity Muggers (slate.com)
I avoid street canvassers for do-gooding organizations. Does that make me a jerk?
Farhad Manjoo: The Fantastic Firefox (slate.com)
Why Mozilla's new browser augurs great things for the Web.
Tom Danehy: A trip to the Tucson Roller Derby becomes an eye-opening experience (tucsonweekly.com)
After all these years, I finally know what Jim Croce meant when he sang about "the night that I fell in love with a roller derby queen." I went to the season-ending Tucson Roller Derby matches over at Bladeworld on Grant Road, and it was nothing short of magnificent.
Irene Messina: After bad experiences with other religions, some Tucsonans find comfort in Satanism (tucsonweekly.com)
Tucsonan John Brown II doesn't believe in God. He used to, but the former Jehovah's Witness has closed the good book.
ALEXANDER NAZARYAN: Reading to Live (nytimes.com)
"In much wisdom is much grief," counsels the book of Ecclesiastes, and in Christopher R. Beha's tender intellectual memoir, we find plenty of both. By the time he set out to read all 51 volumes of the Harvard Classics - known as the Five-Foot Shelf - Beha had already survived blood cancer and seen his identical twin brother nearly die after a car accident.
Robert Pinsky: Marianne Moore's "Poetry" (slate.com)
Why did she keep revising it?
Alison Flood: "Tweet revenge: literary feuds go short and sharp" (guardian.co.uk)
A negative review might once have prompted a stern letter to the editor. Today, the weapon of choice for an angry author appears to be Twitter.
Hadley Freeman: The new confessional journalism turns female writers into tedious, self-hating semi-celebrities (guardian.co.uk)
These women need help; they do not need to be made to feel that their professional USP is to play up their misery.
'The most revolting dish ever devised' (guardian.co.uk)
Elizabeth David was the doyenne of food writers. But, says Tim Hayward, the bitchy annotations she wrote in her cookbooks reveal another side of her.
Roger Ebert: Whatever Works (3 stars)
Woody Allen said in "Manhattan" that Groucho Marx was first on his list of reasons to keep on living. His new film, "Whatever Works," opens with Groucho singing "Hello, I Must Be Going" from "Animal Crackers." It serves as the movie's theme song, summarizing in five words the world view of his hero, Boris Yellnikoff.
The Weekly Poll
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The 'Taking it Personally' Edition
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Assistant to Dr. Sanz Recommends
Madoff the God of Plunder
Hello ,
Daniel Bruno Sanz has published a unique new essay on the Huffington Post: Madoff the God of Plunder
No other writer has used Wagnerian opera in connection with the crimes of Madoff
Regards,
Navas S.
Assistant to Dr. Sanz
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still pleasant.
Fears Fanatics
Rupert Grint
Rupert Grint has spoken of the "terrifying" moment he saw his picture being burned by religious fanatics.
In an interview with FHM magazine, Rupert also said he had "no idea" what to do with all the money he has made from his film career.
"The most terrifying, though, was when I saw a picture in a newspaper of a book-burning in America's Bible Belt.
"And there was a picture of my face smouldering on top of the pyre because they thought the Harry Potter films were endorsing witchcraft. That was when it hit me how big this thing had become."
Rupert Grint
Suing Rupert
Roger Friedman
Former Fox News entertainment writer Roger Friedman is suing his old bosses for more than $5 million after he was fired for reviewing a leaked copy of Fox's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."
Friedman is seeking damages for libel and legal fees in a suit that names Fox as well as News Corp. and its chairman, Rupert Murdoch, as defendants.
He is accusing Fox of violating his contract with the firing, which came after his April 2 review of "Wolverine" appeared on Fox's Web site. Friedman wrote the piece based on a version he found on the Internet before its official release.
In the filing, Friedman claims he contacted an in-house attorney at Fox to get the column cleared but that she never responded. He said none of his editors raised objections.
Friedman said he contacted his editor after the review was removed from the site April 3 and was told Murdoch had ordered the story taken down but that he shouldn't worry about his job.
Roger Friedman
Ecuador Studies Impact
The Simpsons
Hit US cartoon series "The Simpsons" will no longer be shown during prime-time in Ecuador while the government ponders its impact on children, a broadcaster said on Thursday.
Teleamazonas said it would no longer be allowed to broadcast the often satirical exploits of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, between 6:00 am and 9:00 pm, pending a government investigation.
A government-backed regulator will assess the program's impact on "boys, girls and teenagers," and wants to restrict its broadcast "to assure the protection" of younger audiences.
The state TV watchdog said it was concerned by the impact of "programs and messages that promote violence, racial and gender discrimination."
The Simpsons
Housewife First Up
"One & Other"
A housewife from Sleaford in Lincolnshire will be the first of thousands of people to stand for one hour on top of a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square as part of a 100-day "live sculpture" exercise. Skip related content
"One & Other" is a work devised by sculptor Antony Gormley for the square's empty plinth, now a platform for temporary works of art.
The first of 2,400 people to feature in Gormley's work is Rachel Wardell, a 35-year-old housewife and mother-of-two. Participants are chosen at random, and 14,500 people have applied so far.
She will appear on the plinth at 9 a.m. on Monday, July 6, and will be followed at 10 a.m. by Jason Clark, a 41-year-old nurse from Brighton.
"One & Other"
Wins Cybersquatting Case
Leno
Comedian and talk show host Jay Leno has won a cybersquatting case against a Texas man found by a U.N. agency to have misused the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to direct Internet users to a real estate website.
In a ruling issued on Thursday, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said Leno had common law trademark rights to his name after a 30-year career in entertainment, even though Guadalupe Zambrano registered the site in 2004.
Furthermore, real estate agent Zambrano did not have any legitimate rights to the disputed web address and had registered it in "bad faith," according to the ruling by William Towns, an independent arbitrator appointed by the Geneva-based agency.
Towns ordered the domain name transferred within 10 days to Leno, who will be hosting a new comedy show on NBC in September after a 17-year run at "The Tonight Show" which ended last May.
Leno
White Flight
'Bruno'
A high school that was the location for a racy photo shoot by Sacha Baron Cohen's character "Bruno" has broken away from the nation's second-largest school district.
Birmingham High School in Los Angeles had already been planning to become a separate charter school before Wednesday's decision.
The move came one day after officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District disciplined two administrators over violating the district's policy on using the school's name in the film.
The charter proposal ends the district's authority over school employees, so the disciplinary action will be moot.
'Bruno'
Acce$$ For $ale
"Publishers' Conference"
The Washington Post asked lobbyists and business leaders to pay $25,000 to attend a dinner discussion with government officials and journalists at the home of its publisher, and then canceled the event after the invitations became public.
The newspaper's executive editor, Marcus Brauchli, said Thursday that no one in the newsroom had vetted the invitation and its journalists would not participate.
The flier advertised a "Washington Post salon" on health care reform at the home of Publisher Katharine Weymouth on July 21, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. The Web site Politico first reported its existence.
Another invitation obtained by the AP identified Kaiser Permanente as a sponsor of the health care discussion.
"Publishers' Conference"
Wife Arrested
Gary Coleman
Police say the wife of actor Gary Coleman was booked into jail after an argument at the couple's Utah County home.
Shannon Price was arrested Wednesday and held for about two hours before posting US$1,205 bail. Utah County Jail records show the 23-year-old Price was booked for investigation of domestic violence, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. It's unclear whether Price has an attorney.
An arrest affidavit says police were called to the home after Price allegedly locked Coleman out during an argument and was yelling obscenities out the window, had thrown items around the home and upended furniture.
There is no indication that the 41-year-old Coleman, best known for his stint on "Diff'rent Strokes," was injured.
Gary Coleman
Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code
Thomas Jefferson
For more than 200 years, buried deep within Thomas Jefferson's correspondence and papers, there lay a mysterious cipher -- a coded message that appears to have remained unsolved. Until now.
The cryptic message was sent to President Jefferson in December 1801 by his friend and frequent correspondent, Robert Patterson, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. President Jefferson and Mr. Patterson were both officials at the American Philosophical Society -- a group that promoted scholarly research in the sciences and humanities -- and were enthusiasts of ciphers and other codes, regularly exchanging letters about them.
In this message, Mr. Patterson set out to show the president and primary author of the Declaration of Independence what he deemed to be a nearly flawless cipher. "The art of secret writing," or writing in cipher, has "engaged the attention both of the states-man & philosopher for many ages," Mr. Patterson wrote. But, he added, most ciphers fall "far short of perfection."
There is no evidence that Jefferson, or anyone else for that matter, ever solved the code. But Jefferson did believe the cipher was so inscrutable that he considered having the State Department use it, and passed it on to the ambassador to France, Robert Livingston.
Thomas Jefferson
In Memory
Anna Karen Morrow
Anna Karen Morrow, an actress who had a regular role on the prime-time soap opera "Peyton Place" and also appeared on Broadway, in films and on numerous other television shows, has died. She was 94.
Her film credits included "The Price of Fear," "The Wrong Man" and "Holiday For Lovers".
On "Peyton Place," she played Mrs. Chernak, the Harrington family housekeeper. Morrow also appeared in the TV series "Star Trek," "Gunsmoke," "Marcus Welby, M.D." and "Wagon Train," and on Broadway in the play "Red Gloves." Before acting, she was a model in New York.
She was the widow of Jeff Morrow, who also acted on stage and screen and was perhaps best known for his performances in several science fiction films that achieved cult status. He died in 1993.
Morrow is survived by her daughter, Lissa Morrow Christian, of New York. The family plans a private memorial Sunday.
Anna Karen Morrow
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