Expansive survey finds waist size linked to early death
BBC Nov 13, 08 12:17 PM CST
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Flabby guts send many to the gym, but a far-reaching new study concludes that they can send you to an early grave as well—even among those with normal weight. The risk of dying prematurely shoots up about 15% each time the belt is let out two inches, researchers concluded after sizing up 360,000 European bellies. Experts recommend measuring the waist to assess health, the BBC reports, and the ever-popular exercise and balanced diet.
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Jurassic Park author, 66, sold more than 150M copies worldwide
Entertainment Tonight Nov 5, 08 12:24 PM CST
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Jurassic Park author and ER creator Michael Crichton died yesterday at 66 after a battle with cancer, Entertainment Tonight reports. “While the world knew him as a great storyteller," Crichton was "a devoted husband, loving father, and generous friend who inspired,” his family said in a statement. His books, which also included bestseller The Andromeda Strain , sold more than 150 million copies.
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'Bittersweet' time for candidate who loses beloved relative as campaign ends
Reuters Nov 4, 08 3:33 AM CST
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Tears rolled down Barack Obama's cheeks as he spoke at one of his last campaign rallies about his beloved grandmother, who died yesterday at the age of 86. "This obviously is a bittersweet time for me," Obama said. The candidate often credits his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham—whom he called "Toot"—as the woman who shaped his values, reports Reuters.
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Author, oral historian, and firebrand leftist will be sorely missed
Chicago Sun-Times Nov 1, 08 7:18 AM CDT
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Chicago has lost its finest citizen with the death of Studs Terkel, Roger Ebert writes in his Chicago Sun-Times blog. The author "represented the joyous, scrappy, liberal, generous, wise-cracking heart of this city," Ebert writes, and chronicled the lives of countless Chicagoans. “He was the most widely and deeply loved man I ever hope to know," Ebert writes.
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Marie-Dennett McDill spent her last 10 weeks at the Carlyle, a place she loved
New York Times Oct 22, 08 3:57 PM CDT
(Newser)
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When 71-year-old Marie-Dennett McDill learned she had terminal cancer, her children checked her into her beloved Carlyle Hotel, the Times reports. McDill stayed at her favorite swanky locale in NYC under 24-hour hospice care for her last 10 weeks. She took daily walks in Central Park and camped out in the hotel’s piano lounge, requesting Cole Porter ‘til the end.
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Report that CEO had heart attack is false, company says
Bloomberg Oct 3, 08 12:38 PM CDT
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Apple again today was forced to quash rumors about the health of CEO Steve Jobs, refuting a report that the CEO had suffered a “major heart attack,” Bloomberg reports. Shares fell as much as 5.4% following a post on CNN’s citizen-journalist iReport site, but have since rebounded. Jobs’ health has been an issue since a bout with pancreatic cancer in 2004.
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Italian researchers discover stress of extra-marital affairs can lead to fatal headaches
Daily Telegraph (UK) Oct 1, 08 4:01 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Deadly migraines can be caused by cheating on one’s spouse, the Telegraph reports. An Italian study found that the devastating headaches can turn fatal when coupled with an extra-marital affair. Migraines “can be exacerbated by a series of factors like aphrodisiac food, performance-enhancing drugs, physical strain and psychological stress caused by the need to keep the relationship secret,” a researcher said.
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OPINION
Satirist's curable
cancer prompts musings on life's end
Search Magazine Sep 30, 08 9:30 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A cancer diagnosis with a 95% chance of survival, while it might not let one “stare death in the face,” at least gives PJ O’Rourke a chance to muse on the end of the road. At first, he “cursed God, as we all do when we get bad news and pain,” he writes in Search magazine. But then he reconsidered: perhaps death really helps us “learn right from wrong” in a chaotic world.
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Contest with girlfriend's brother ends in tragedy
Times (UK) Sep 29, 08 2:37 PM CDT
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A budding British cook died last week after eating his own spicy tomato sauce, the London Times reports. Andrew Lee, 33, challenged his girlfriend’s brother to a contest, arriving with a jar of the sauce, made with chilies his father had grown. After eating it, he felt itchy and discomfited, and fell asleep while his girlfriend scratched his back. The next morning he was dead.
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UPDATED
Galveston sees flooding as Ike prepares for landfall
Houston Chronicle Sep 12, 08 4:25 PM CDT
(Newser)
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With Hurricane Ike bearing down on Texas, rescuers continued to evacuate coastal residents from the flooding, the Houston Chronicle reports. Emergency workers used an Army personnel carrier to evacuate residents of High Island, in far eastern Galveston County, stranded by high waters. Tragically, a 10-year-old boy was killed by a falling branch as his parents cut down a tree in preparation for the storm.
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Lower cost, greater personalization
appeal to families
Washington Post Sep 7, 08 2:00 PM CDT
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The cremation industry is booming, a reflection of tighter economic times and a push from consumers for more creative funeral options, reports the Washington Post . Cremations, cheaper than traditional burial, rose 7% nationwide in the past 5 years and made up 35% of the funeral market last year. Funeral homes are building or expanding crematorium facilities, and entrepreneurs are devising new ways to memorialize ashes.
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Patient unattended as staff played cards
Associated Press Aug 20, 08 12:00 PM CDT
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Federal authorities are threatening to cut funding for a North Carolina hospital where a psychiatric patient died after being ignored for 22 hours, the AP reports. It’s still not clear what killed the 50-year-old, who at one point choked on medication, but surveillance video shows him sitting unattended while staff played cards and watched television just feet away.
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Slate explains where Hubbard's flock go when they die
Slate Aug 12, 08 9:12 AM CDT
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The death of legendary soul singer Isaac Hayes on Sunday is no cause to mourn: He’ll apparently be back. Hayes was a dedicated Scientologist, and as Nina Shen Rastogi explains in Slate, this means eternal life. Church founder L Ron Hubbard describes the Scientology experience as "simply living time after time, getting a new body, eventually losing it and getting a new one."
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Lung disease, immune-suppressing meds were factors
People Aug 10, 08 8:10 AM CDT
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Suffering from a rare lung disease, Bernie Mac was on medication to suppress his immune system—and that that made him vulnerable to the pneumonia that ended his life, his sister-in-law told People . He was hospitalized 8 days earlier than reported with a fever and trouble breathing, and “was in intensive care the whole time,” she said. At the hospital, Mac became infected with a second strain of pneumonia.
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