Thursday, November 14, 2013

How Orwellian : Women live longer than ever – women hardest hit

map of US life expectancy gender gap (here)


The headline is "U.S. Life Expectancy Map: The Gender Gap" with the subhead "Ladies Last" on this National Geographic piece by Amanda Fiegl

How long do you have? It depends on gender and geography. In the U.S., women live longer—81 years on average, 76 for men—but a recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reveals a troubling trend. Though men's life spans have increased by 4.6 years since 1989, women have gained only 2.7 years, perhaps because a larger percentage of women have lacked adequate treatment for high blood pressure and cholesterol. "This is a wake-up call," says study co-author Ali Mokdad.

The question remains whether the "troubling trend" is that men's life expectancy has increased or if the troubling part is that women life expectancy increased less than men.

Despite the article's subhead reading "Ladies Last" the map is labeled "Margin by which women outlive men" with, apparently, no areas of the US where men outlive women. Poor, poor ladies last.

In looking for the context of the quote "This is a wake-up call"  this USA Today article shows that Ali Mokdad was referring not to men's increase or the comparative increase of women's but to some areas that have had a stagnation or decrease in life expectancy.

Amanda Fiegl's blinkered one-sidedness is similar to the WEF Gender Gap report mentioned previously.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Charles P. Pierce is an idiot


(a reprise from elsewhere from the day of the Boston Marathon Bombing (Apr 15, 2013)  but as far as I'm aware Charles P. Pierce is still an idiot.)

from Charles P. Pierce at Esquire : 
"Obviously, nobody knows anything yet, but I would caution folks jumping to conclusions about foreign terrorism to remember that this is the official Patriots Day holiday in Massachusetts, celebrating the Battles at Lexington and Concord, and that the actual date (April 19) was of some significance to, among other people, Tim McVeigh, because he fancied himself a waterer of the tree of liberty and the like."

Don't jump to conclusions about foreigners when you can jump to conclusions about your fellow citizens.
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that this is the official Patriots Day holiday in Massachusetts, celebrating the Battles at Lexington and Concord, and that the actual date (April 19) was of some significance to, among other people, Tim McVeigh.

Follow the logic : 
  • there is a bombing on April 15
  • April 15 is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts (third Monday in April since 1969)
  • Patriot's Day in Mass used to be on April 19
  • In 1995, Patriot's Day fell on April 17 and Tim McVeigh (b. 1968) said his act of mass murder was done on April 19, 1995 as that was the anniversary of the end of the Waco Seige.
  • Therefore there might be a connection between McVeigh's bombing on April 19 and the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing.
  • Connect the dots, Sheeple!


Although it may have missed the grasp of Charles P. Pierce, my guess would be that the date of the Boston Marathon bombing was chosen based on the date that the Boston Marathon was scheduled to be held. Imagine the Groundhog Day Liberation Front trying to bomb the Boston Marathon on Feb 2.