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InquilineKea

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Posts posted by InquilineKea

  2. Posted

    It's like a seesaw. Whenever he gets out of his coma, he witnesses the bleak world, which makes him so depressed that he gets heart problems and falls into a coma again. And then when he's back in that coma, his condition gets better - to the point that he wakes up again.

  4. Posted

    Well, that's every single possible combination of "months to live", "days to live", "battling pancreatic cancer" and "fight against a terminal illness" put through Google, and every single newspaper scoured for possible hints at which sportsmen have terminally ill parents that might cause them to miss games. My team's now complete. Four journalists in it, not that I'm bitter about my career path or anything.

     

     

    Hahaha I was thinking of doing the exact same thing!

  5. Posted

    Wow, I can't believe it. It always seemed like he and Jimmy Carter could have gone on forever.

     

    http://news.yahoo.com/george-h-w-bush-wife...dGVzdAM-;_ylv=3

     

     

    Don’t expect to see pictures of former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush at the wedding of their granddaughter Lauren Bush, who is set to tie the knot with 39-year-old David Lauren at a Colorado ranch Sunday.

    According to ABC News, the proud grandparents won’t attend the ceremony because the location’s high altitude would be detrimental to their health.

    Bush is 87 years old and Barbara Bush is 86. ABC also reports that a representative of former President George W. Bush, Lauren’s uncle, declined to comment on his plans. (RELATED: Patrick Kennedy gets hitched in Hyannis Port)

    The occasion’s rigorous pre-wedding activities would likely also be too much for the elderly Bushes. On Saturday guests are welcome to participate in a baseball game on the 17,000-acre Rocky Mountain ranch. The “Double RL” ranch has cabins, a saloon and even teepees.

     

    And from that time article..

     

     

    He’s 86 now, his eyebrows silver and his legs weakened by Parkinsonism, a vascular disorder akin to Parkinson’s disease. But as George Herbert Walker Bush approaches his twilight years, he is beginning to get his due.

     

    With that all said, he's not in any immediate danger.

     

    How are you feeling? Are you done jumping out of airplanes?

    I have a form of Parkinson's disease, which I don't like. My legs don't move when my brain tells them to. It's very frustrating. But I am in no pain, and I have discovered the amazing scooters, which Barbara accuses me of driving like I drive my boat. But they help me get around. I'm not sure about jumping. I announced I was going to jump when I turned 90. I have three more years to decide. My legs' not working properly might be a deterrent.

     

    He's still definitely expecting to hold on for at least several more years.

  7. Posted

    Oh wow - very nice stats. :lol: Pretty much confirms my impressions (although there's definitely a selection effect, since coke-users are more likely to come from a population that's more irresponsible). Nndb lists both Obama and Bush as having coke habits (so their standards of "coke habit" are pretty low), but since their coke habits were far in the past, I doubt it affects their current health.

     

    I look forward to seeing your next analysis!

  9. Posted

    Some of them were unusually active (and healthy) up to their last few years. Others seemed to be unusually active (and healthy) all the way up to a seemingly sudden death. These are the types of people who I probably wouldn't have put on my DDP lists, based on what I heard of them shortly before their deaths.

     

    Maybe a list of them might produce some insights.

     

    W.E.B. Dubois, for example, was quite active until 1.5 years before his death.

    Here's some very useful info about Bertrand Russell in his 90s: http://www.springerlink.com/content/v378kx4373g63n74/ - ugh - protected. But he was active even in 1969: http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=ber...&lnav=hist9

    And then there's Frank Fenner, who made news this year (and even hosted a conference) at 95: http://australianetworknews.com/stories/20...030.htm?desktop

     

    Then there were some people I know who were unusually healthy/active all the way to their seemingly sudden deaths. There were former Luftwaffe pilots Gunther Rall (although he had a heart attack so it's not really a case of advanced age and more of a case of people who die suddenly from heart attacks at any age) and Hajo Herrmann.

  10. Posted

    http://news.google.com/archivesearch

     

    It's actually somewhat interesting to use this to track down the historical last days of various famous figures, such as Truman, Eisenhower, Tito, and Franco. You just need to type in their name and search around the period that they died. In many cases, their condition fluctuated many times before death. Sometimes, they seemed to almost amazingly recover from some brutal ailments.

     

    And it's also interesting to read the news articles about them 2 years before they died. Herbert Hoover, for example, was described as being "in very good health for a man his age" when he was 88.

     

    For example, with Truman, you can see this:

    http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=har...&lnav=hist2

     

    With Eisenhower:

    http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=dwi...&lnav=hist9

     

    Hoover:

    http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=her...&lnav=hist4

  11. Posted

    Feel free to contribute. This might help in predicting the future mortality of various famous people given some event happening to them (hip fracture, their wife dies, they end up hospitalized, they get open heart surgery, etc.). Obviously, many predictions will turn out wrong. Sometimes, the healthiest nonagenarians just end up suddenly dying. But these predictions work as long as they're more accurate than intuition.

     

    For the record though, I don't consider hazard ratios to be very significant until they're over 2 (and combined with other hazard ratios).

     

    ==

     

    Some people seem to have a period of extended frailty before death, whereas others seem to suddenly (and surprisingly) die. People who have lots of small strokes/heart attacks seem to become frail quite early, and often live with it for years before death (especially true if they have heart failure).

     

    ==

     

    With respect to the famous, we would expect somewhat lower mortality rates than average simply because the famous are unusually likely to be "successful" (and "successful" often implies being rich and socially connected). Furthermore, if they lose their spouse, it's easier for them to get someone else to hang around with (Cronkite and Chen Ning Yang both remarried at very advanced ages).

     

    ==

    Surprisingly, hip fractures can cause surprisingly increased death rates: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/825363-overview.

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=A...mp;searchtype=a

    Especially in centenarians: http://www.slideshare.net/olivercw/hip-fra...in-centenarians

     

    Increased death rates among widowers: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-...ar-widowed.html (yes I know dailymail is not credible, but the facts seem valid here)

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1982801/

    But remarriage drastically decreases them: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...,954902,00.html

     

    Prevalence of pain among those in their last few months: http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-11-03/bay-...lderly-patients

    (some people will complain about it more - it appears that those with arthritis are especially more likely to do so)

     

    Increased mortality rates of those with rheumatoid arthritis: http://rawarrior.com/mortality-and-rheumatoid-arthritis/

    Life Expectancy Studies

     

    With regard to reduced life expectancy for rheumatoid arthritis patients, the standardized mortality ratio from different studies has ranged from 1.13 to 2.98. This mainly applies to rheumatoid factor positive cases, although a subgroup of rheumatoid factor negative cases with an adverse long-term prognosis exists. Clinically based studies probably overestimate the true shortening of life span and population-based studies may underestimate it.

     

    In 1989, a study was done in Finland of 1666 people who had died and had been receiving medication for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Demographic data on the Finnish population and sickness insurance statistics were used as the basis for computations. Results indicated that the life span of subjects with RA was shortened by 15-20% from the date of onset of illness.

     

    about 40% of the excess deaths were due to cardiovascular causes

    about 30% due to infections

    about 15% due to amyloidosis

    the remaining 15% were due to various other causes

     

    Anemia: (hazard ratio of ~1.4-2)

    http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/181/3-4/151

    http://www.medpagetoday.com/Geriatrics/Gen...eriatrics/15244

    http://www.acpjc.org/Content/151/6/issue/A...9-151-6-013.htm

     

    "Strong will" (whatever that means): [weak will has hazard ratio of ~1.64]

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723425/

     

    Frailty and death in China:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2667569/

     

    Diagnosis of diabetes at older ages (not as bad as diagnosis at earlier ages):

    http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/5/463.full

     

    Grip Strength:

    http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.or...t/61/7/707.full

     

    Gait speed:

    http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/me...bstracts/S988-c

    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565777

     

    Biomarkers to predict survival to very old age: (not very useful here, since news articles don't publish people's biomarkers)

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20514522

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P...2010-381637.pdf

     

    There are many other interesting studies if you do certain google keywords: http://www.google.com/search?q=mortality+of+centenarians

     

    Not directly related to mortality, but still interesting:

    http://www.nia.nih.gov/NewsAndEvents/Press...01026sepsis.htm

  12. Posted

    I was going to put him on my DDP next year (after he got in the news for his prediction) but when i googled his name again, i realized that he suddenly died. o_0

     

    But he seemed to be as unusually active as Townes was (for his age)

     

    I might be able to get some insider information on Hans Dehmelt. He was aggressively pursuing a paleolithic diet several years ago. I'm not sure what he is up to now though. Here's his website: http://faculty.washington.edu/dehmelt/. And a sample diet of his: http://faculty.washington.edu/dehmelt/shreds102708B.htm

     

    And a paper of his: YOU ARE A PRIMATE, LIVE AS ONE: faculty.washington.edu/dehmelt/110508.rtf

     

    I certainly do hope that he lives as long as possible though.

  13. Posted

    Townes is still in very good health for his age, and he's still very active (he's still mobile and publishing papers). Anything could happen at age 96 (falls can be fatal), but I'm not betting on him going anytime soon. (I think he'll surpass Bethe as the oldest Physics Nobel laureate)

     

    Among all the older Nobel laureates, I'd bet against him and Chen Ning Yang dying. The others probably have higher chances of dying.

  15. Posted

    Hm, what about the highest-ranking ones who are still alive? There probably aren't any generals left, but there might be colonels or lieut colonels. I suspect that there are lots of colonels or lieut colonels who don't even have Wiki bios - but who might get telegraph obits when they die.

     

    There's a Luftwaffe Oberst who's still alive (born 1913), and a SS divisional commander who's also still alive (born 1913). But I don't know of many people from any side other than the German one (the Germans seem to have the monopoly on Wiki articles even though they'll get the fewest telegraph obits).

     

    Even then, you get some surprises from the Chinese, who seem to have a lot of people who live into their 100s:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BC_Zhengcao

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yuanliang

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiao_Ke

     

    Although at this point, there are so few living vets of certain battles (like the Battle of Britain) that they'll almost certainly get telegraph obits even though they might not have Wiki articles yet.

  16. Posted

    Who are the highest-ranking WWII officers who are still alive? Any divisional or brigade commanders?

    It might be hard to find a lot of them though - some really high-ranking Chinese generals from WWII died in really recent years (but they didn't even get Wikipedia articles until they died)

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    Because of health issues, Dr. Edwards himself was not available to reflect on his research career or the four million children alive because of his achievement. "Unfortunately he is not in a position to understand the honor he has received today," said Dr. Michael Macnamee, director of the Bourn Hall clinic and a longtime colleague of Dr. Edwards. "He remembers the past very well, but not the present." The deliberations of the prize-giving committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are confidential, and it is unclear why it took so long to acknowledge Dr. Edwards's achievement.

     

    People with dementia can go on for years. But maybe we'll learn more in the coming days?

  18. Posted

    Speaking of Germans in WWII, here's an interesting list:

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_livin...ross_recipients

     

    Granted, the media is leery of giving obits to most of them unless they are famous for something else. Darges got an obit, but due to his being on Hitler's inner circle. Gunther Rall also got an obit (from the telegraph), but barely (although his obit is long, and he was probably the most notable [post-war] of all of them). As for the others, I don't see any of them getting obits though Ribbentrop might get one just cuz he's the son of a notorious person.

     

    Most of the others don't get obits though (Barkmann didn't, though he was quite potent on the Western Front).

  19. Posted

    It's his 100th birthday today but there aren't any English articles mentioning it. I ran the French ones through Google Translate and got at this:

     

    AFP: L'Académie française honore son centenaire, Claude Lévi-Strauss

    http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navcl...86085&hl=fr

    Recherche Google :

    http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...p;ie=ISO-8859-1

    Translated version of http://www.latribune.fr/culture/livres-bd/...euse-fete-.html

    http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...p;ie=ISO-8859-1

    Translated version of http://www.letemps.ch/template/culture.asp...;article=244939

    http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...=1&ie=UTF-8

    Translated version of http://www.24heures.ch/actu/claude-levi-st...aire-2008-11-26

     

    ==

    so basically all that I can ascertain is that he "recently" said "if I am still alive it is only accidentally" and that he didnt attend the celebrations in honor of his 100th birthday. so I dont even know if he's still aware or not; of whether or not he's close to death now.

  20. Posted

    http://www.worldradio.ch/wrs/news/switzerl...sel.shtml?10492

     

    LSD, ecstasy bend minds in Basel

    Psychedelic drugs like LSD and ecstasy are the subject of an international conference taking place in Basel later this week. About 2,000 participants will be discussing their use, abuse and cultural significance. And guest of honour will be 102-year-old Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD. World Radio Switzerland’s Vincent Landon has more.

    E-mail Print

    By Vincent Landon, World Radio Switzerland

     

    Download mp3 (2.6 MB)

     

    Consciousness Change, a challenge of the 21st Century. That’s the title of the World Psychedelic Forum taking place in Basel. It comes just two years after a first symposium attracted huge international interest, says organiser Dieter Hagenbach

     

    HAGENBACH: “What we found out after the last conference is that there is an enormous interest in information about psychedelic drugs, and we are going to cover and give a lot of information about these substances – the use, the misuse and the history.”

     

    Psychotherapist Peter Gasser from Solothurn is carrying out trials with LSD on patients suffering from advanced-stage cancer and other terminal illnesses. Results are expected next year. Swiss medical authorities gave approval for the trials last year, making it the first government-approved study of LSD in over 35 years.

     

    GASSER: “What we are hoping is that the level of anxiety and distress will improve under the effect of LSD, and that’s what we are measuring.”

     

    His colleague Peter Oehen from Biberist is conducing a trial with ecstasy in patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He says the authorities have started to look more favourably on carefully designed studies.

     

    OEHEN: “There’s a kind of renaissance going on and if you have a sound protocol, then ethic committees are willing to give permission to examine psychedelics for certain medical conditions.”

     

    The conference will be a trip down memory lane for Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann who discovered LSD in 1938. Hofmann, who celebrated his 102nd birthday in January will be guest of honour. The reason for his excellent health is even more mind-bending than LSD. Here’s Dieter Hagenbach again.

     

    HAGENBACH: “Most people think that it has to do with his discovery – the wonder drug – but when people ask him about the secret of his longevity, he says: ‘Every morning I have two raw eggs in my muesli and a glass of cider.’”

     

    LSD was once a well-respected treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders. But its widespread use as a recreational drug eventually led to a worldwide ban at the end of the 1960s. Now the medical profession is rediscovering its virtues.

  21. Posted

    Here's another legacy of Suharto that many people forget:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/843300.stm

    'Crony capitalism'

     

    One of the authors, Dr Charles Barber, said: "Current Indonesian forest policies have provided powerful legal incentives for 'cut-and-run' resource extraction.

     

    "They have failed to create effective mechanisms for enforcing even minimum standards of forest resource stewardship."

     

    The report says former premier Suharto's malpractices were perpetuated "by a corrupt culture of 'crony capitalism' that elevated personal profit over public interest, the environment, or the rule of law." During the 32 years of President Suharto's rule, WRI says, Indonesia lost at least 40 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Germany and the Netherlands together.

     

    "Much of these forests were granted as timber concessions to Suharto's cronies, his family, and to ill-fated government projects like the failed effort to convert 1m ha of peat swamp forests in central Kalimantan into rice fields. "In the 1990s, oil palm and timber plantations replaced additional millions of hectares of forests. Illegal logging has become prevalent, accounting for an estimated half of the annual production of timber."

     

    suharto rainforest - Google Search

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/843300.stm

    BBC News | SCI/TECH | Indonesia's fires 'Suharto's legacy'

    http://rainforests.mongabay.com/20indonesia.htm

    Indonesia: Environmental Profile

    http://www.orangutan.com/orangutans_avoid.html

    The Orangutan Conservancy: Orangutans & the Rainforest: Items to Avoid

    http://singabloodypore.rsfblog.org/archive...ut-suharto.html

    Just so that we are all clear about Suharto : Singabloodypore

    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn41...22/ai_n12705805

    Activists take fight to save Indonesian rainforests to Tilbury | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com

  22. Posted

    Suharto's body on display in Jakarta

    printable versionbigger textsmaller text

     

    The President of Indonesia has paid his respects at the coffin of the former leader Suharto, who has died at the age of 86. Officials say the former president died of multiple organ failure after being hospitalised in Jakarta three weeks ago.

     

    Suharto's legacy of boosting economic development was marred by accusations of corruption and human rights abuses during his 32 years in office. The head of a group of NGOs that fight for victims rights says past abuses have to be addressed. Usman Hamid said: "There are many people, thousands of people, who lost their parents, who lost their fathers, their mothers, their sons, and I think they need justice."

     

    Suharto's body is to be taken to Java's royal city of Solo on Monday for a funeral at the family's mausoleum.

     

    http://www.euronews.net/images_news/W300px...oir-suharto.jpg

    http://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=inf...66887&lng=1

  23. Posted

    News results for suharto

     

     

    Javno.hr Indonesia's Suharto slips into coma - doctor - 2 hours ago

    By Telly Nathalia JAKARTA (Reuters) - Former Indonesian president Suharto, who has been in hospital in a critical condition for more than three weeks, ...

    Reuters India - 374 related articles »

    Former Indonesian Dictator Suharto Dies - The Associated Press - 181 related articles »

    Ex-strongman Suharto leaves controversial legacy - Reuters - 14 related articles »

  24. Posted

    holy sh*t.

     

    he died barely a DAY after "being able to breathe on his own and being able to be released after 2 days"

     

    The government announced a mourning period of seven days following the death of Suharto.
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