#mortality — Public Fediverse posts

What 3,600 adults with diabetes revealed about lifestyle and heart health

A UK Biobank analysis followed more than 3,600 adults with type 2 diabetes to examin…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanDiet #cardiovasculardisease #Diabetes #heart #heartfailure #IschemicStroke #Mediterranean #Mortality #MyocardialInfarction #physicalactivity #sleep #stroke #type2diabetes #UKBiobank
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2777096/what-3600-adults-with-diabetes-revealed-about-lifestyle-and-heart-health/

What 3,600 adults with diabetes revealed about lifestyle and heart health https://www.diningandcooking.com/2777096/what-3600-adults-with-diabetes-revealed-about-lifestyle-and-heart-health/ #CardiovascularDisease #Diabetes #diet #food #heart #HeartFailure #IschemicStroke #Mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #Mortality #MyocardialInfarction #PhysicalActivity #sleep #stroke #Type2Diabetes #UKBiobank

Many of Europe’s tracks and roads desperately need upgrades to meet new extreme temperature thresholds, or delays and disruptions will become the norm, experts said. Rail services in Britain and France reduced services this week and warned of disruptions as Western Europe endured its fifth heat wave since May,
#climatechange #climatecrisis #climateemergency #collapse #Europe #mortality #heatwave
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/world/europe/heat-trains-transportation-roads.html

Around 16,000 more people than usual died in Europe during the heat wave, according to an analysis by the European Mortality Monitoring Network. Most of the deaths were in northern countries — France, Belgium and Germany — that are not accustomed to such high temperatures and struggled to respond.
#climatechange #climatecrisis #climateemergency #collapse #Europe #mortality #heatwave
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/08/15/world/europe/europe-heat-wave-deaths-june-2026.html

Psalm 39

God breathed in.
I was born.

God breathes out.
I will die.

Thus is the scope of my life.

August 16, 2015

"This is it. I'm going to die."

That was my first thought as I lay alone in my apartment with COVID.

But what came next was a life I never imagined; a different way of making my dreams come true.

#longcovid #mentalhealth #mortality #philosophy #motivation

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-long-covid-reactivated-my-short-life-vincent-james-buk4e?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&utm_campaign=share_via

ACLU of Maryland: ACLU of Maryland Releases Years-Long Database and Report on Police Killings in Maryland. “The ACLU of Maryland has published a comprehensive database and 50-page report on police killings in Maryland from 2015 to 2023. The report: Crisis 911: Police Killings, Racial Disparities, Behavioral Health Crisis, and Institutional Complicity in Maryland, spans several years of data and […]

DEATH, GOD, &
A VERY SMALL SPIDER 💎

I am increasingly aware that I will leave this world. I don’t know when. I don’t know how. Perhaps within the next decade. Perhaps sooner. Who knows.

And strangely, there is less fear in that now. Most of the fear seems to belong to what I imagine is unknown.

If death is simply the end of Robin and the end of this consciousness, then there will be nobody there to be bothered by it. It will simply be over. And if there is something beyond this life, another realm, another dimension, another form of consciousness, then I suppose I will recognise it when I get there.

I don’t know. And I am quite happy not knowing.

Human beings have created manifold books, religions and pictures of God, spirit, heaven, continuation and eternity. Perhaps some of them point towards something true. Perhaps some are simply beautiful ways of comforting ourselves in the face of death.

But every picture I can make of what comes next is still a picture being made here.

I don’t want to manufacture comfort. I want clarity. I want to meet whatever happens without having already decided what it is supposed to look like.

Maybe there is something. Maybe there is nothing. Either way, reality does not require my opinion.

And while I am sitting here contemplating this enormous mystery, a tiny spider appears beside me. He is absurdly small. I stop, look at him, laugh, and decide he can stay.

And suddenly, there it all is. Death. Consciousness. God. Eternity. And a tiny spider wandering across my morning.

The fire is on. The coffee is good. People are interacting with things I have written. The spider is minding his own business.

Life has not stopped being ordinary just because I know it ends. I rather like that.

None of it means anything until I give it meaning. And this morning, the meaning I choose is very simple.

Gratitude.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works
@startrek

#death #mortality #afterlife #consciousness #spirituality #ACIM #clarity #gratitude #presence #ordinarylife #mystery #life #openweb #human #person #spider #Economics #Housing #CostOfLiving
#Meditation #Breathwork #Fediverse #OpenWeb #BigTech

Something To Talk About

In Publishing News this week The news dominating the last two weeks in publishing is the fall out over the cancelled $2M book deal for Call Me I’ll Hide The Body. When the news broke, the publishing community went into a spin. First there was the bidding war among 14 editors- then there was the advance deal of $2Million! Then the agents walked away from a huge payday for them. The recriminations started. The author is maintaining innocence. Publishers Weekly looks at what the industry can change going forward. There has been some excellent commentary around the whole problem of publishers demanding transparency from authors while using AI in their own offices. Kathleen Scmidt wrote an excellent article on how publishers need to figure out some…
https://www.maureencrisp.com/2026/08/something-to-talk-about.html

#AIandpublishing #danblank #IBBY #LiteraryEstates #Mortality

Dusk

i had such grandiose plans
another day to spend
from the bank of my life
to reap the dividend

somewhere i went awry
i lost track of the sun
when i turned around again
the day was almost done

so now i pin my hopes
on the fading light
i watch the creeping shadows
and make plans for the night

August 13, 2015

Taxi Drivers Rarely Die Of Alzheimer’s – How Complex Mental Maps And Spatial Reasoning Protect Your Brain [why knowing your way around might help you stay sharp]
--
https://theconversation.com/taxi-drivers-rarely-die-of-alzheimers-how-complex-mental-maps-and-spatial-reasoning-protect-your-brain-286650 <-- shared technical article
--
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-082194 <-- shared paper
--
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.070039597 <-- shared paper
--
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-018-0031-x <-- shared paper
--
https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/licensing/learn-the-knowledge-of-london <-- details of @Transport for London’s ‘The Knowledge’ details
--
https://youtu.be/u7gp8KBP7ak?si=X1xXcysZF2LayFkx <-- shared video, ‘The People Who Have To Remember 25,000 Streets | The [London] Knowledge - The World's Toughest Taxi Test’
--
H/T @ Jennifer Psillas, GISP | GIS Project Manager at City of Tucson Parks and Recreation
“Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than workers in almost any other job to die of Alzheimer’s disease. That was the surprising result of a 2024 study examining the death certificates of nearly 9 million people in the U.S…
Of the 9 million death certificates from January 2020 to December 2022 that researchers examined, taxi and ambulance drivers had the lowest risk of dying from Alzheimer’s disease out of 443 occupations. After adjusting for age, sex, race, ethnicity and education, roughly 1 in 100 taxi and ambulance drivers died of Alzheimer’s, compared with 1 in 60 people overall.
This pattern did not extend to other driving jobs. The researchers concluded that the key to reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s was not driving itself but continuous real-time navigation: the constant work of locating yourself in space, tracking a destination and updating a mental map as conditions change. Drivers whose jobs relied on fixed or predetermined routes, like bus drivers and aircraft pilots, didn’t seem to experience a similar advantage.
Researchers believe the association between navigation-heavy work and lower Alzheimer’s risk centers on the hippocampus, a part of the brain that governs memory and spatial navigation. It’s one of the first brain regions that Alzheimer’s damages: Problems with spatial navigation and orientation are among the earliest signs of the disease, sometimes surfacing before obvious memory loss.
In one landmark 2000 study [link above], neuroscientists compared the brains of licensed London taxi drivers with those of people who did not drive cabs. Their findings provided the first evidence via structural imaging that regions of the adult brain can measurably change under sustained navigational demand. To earn a license, London cabbies must memorize more than 25,000 streets within a 6-mile radius of Charing Cross, a challenge known as “The Knowledge” that takes three to four years…”
#spatialnavigation #orientation #mental #acuity #taxi #ambulance #paramedic #TheKnowledge #London #UK #Alzheimer #mapping #mentalmaps #spatialmapping #navigation #spatialreasoning #brain #hippocampus #brainhealth #death #mortality #disease #publichealth #scans #occupation #job

A quotation from Twain

Unlimited power is the ideal thing when it is in safe hands. The despotism of heaven is the one absolutely perfect government, and earthly despotism would be the absolute perfect earthly government if the conditions were the same; namely the despot the perfectest individual of the human race, and his lease of life perpetual; but as a perishable, perfect man must die and leave his despotism in the hands of an imperfect successor, an earthly despotism is not merely a bad form of government, it is the worst form that is possible.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Part 3 “The Tale of the Lost Land,” ch. 10 “Beginnings of Civilization”

More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/85346/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #twain #marktwain #connecticutyankee #absolutepower #despotism #dictatorship #humannature #mortality #perfection #succession #tyranny

Major oil firms make $93bn profits amid war and climate crisis

"Iran conflict windfall over three months reignites calls for companies ‘cashing in on human misery’ to pay for environmental damage."

"Eight of the biggest oil companies amassed profits of more than $90bn (£67bn) in just three months as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the emissions-fuelled climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves."

"Carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel firms were directly linked to fatal spells of hot weather for the first time by scientific analysis published last September. It found the emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were each enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2026/aug/04/revealed-major-oil-firms-make-93bn-profits-amid-war-and-climate-crisis

Rising heat kills one person a minute worldwide, major report reveals
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/29/rising-heat-kills-one-person-a-minute-worldwide-lancet-countdown
#FossilFuels #climate #heatwaves #ExtremeHeat #war #disasters #harm #ClimateCosts #mortality #destruction #FossilFuelIndustry

A quotation from Homer

And, oh! whate’er Heaven destined to betide,
   Let neither flattery soothe, nor pity hide.
Prepared I stand: he was but born to try
   The lot of man; to suffer, and to die.
 
[πέρι γάρ μιν ὀιζυρὸν τέκε μήτηρ.
μηδέ τί μ᾽ αἰδόμενος μειλίσσεο μηδ᾽ ἐλεαίρων,
ἀλλ᾽ εὖ μοι κατάλεξον ὃπως ἤντησας ὀπωπῆς.]

Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 3, l. 96ff (3.96) (c. 700 BC) [tr. Pope (1725), l. 114ff]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/homer/49946/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #homer #odyssey #telemachus #odysseus #brutallyhonest #candor #destiny #doom #fate #honesty #meaningoflife #misfortune #mortality #suffering #death

A quotation from Elizabeth Bear

We claim the dignity of age, but the truth is, age leaves us without any dignity at all.

Elizabeth Bear (b. 1971) American author [pseud. for Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky]
Bone and Jewel Creatures, ch. 4 [Bijou] (2010)

More about this quote: wist.info/bear-elizabeth/85244…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #elizabethbear #age #dignity #disability #gettingold #growingold #mortality #oldage #seniority

Ah, the classic "let's #blame #JavaScript for world problems" move 🎭. In a groundbreaking exposé, the article bravely tackles the complex issue of USAID's #impact on #mortality rates, only to be thwarted by the evil duo of JavaScript and #cookies 🍪. Surely, enabling them will unlock the secrets of the universe and maybe even world peace! 😂
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/07/30/how-many-people-are-dying-as-a-result-of-usaids-demise #USAID #Humor #HackerNews #ngated

A quotation from Kerry Greenwood

The upper classes lived well in the good old days. Except, of course, for the famines, the pirates, the bandits, the plagues, the shortness of life and the imminence of ever present death. And no medical treatment, no antiseptic childbirth, no hot baths, no coffee, no chocolate and no tobacco. The last four decided her on the advantages of the twentieth century.

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher, Book 16, Murder in the Dark, ch. 16 (2006)

More about this quote: wist.info/greenwood-kerry/8521…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #kerrygreenwood #phrynefisher #missfisher #medicalcare #modernworld #mortality #nostalgia #past #perspective #present #progress #science #upperclass #wealth

Interim #heat #mortality monitoring #report, #England: May and June 2026 (UKHSA, July 30 '26), https://etidiohnew.blogspot.com/2026/07/interim-heat-mortality-monitoring.html

A quotation from Montaigne

And so, live as long as you please, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead.
 
[Aussi avez vous beau vivre, vous n’en rabattrez rien du temps que vous avez à estre mort.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19), “That to Philosophize Is to Learn to Die [Que Philosopher, c’est apprendre à mourir]” (1572) [tr. Frame (1943), 1.20]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montaigne #micheldemontaigne #death #eternity #lifespan #living #longlife #mortality #shortlife

A new calculation says the death toll of the June #heatwave – the most extreme heat event ever experienced in Europe – exceeds 20,000 heat-related deaths. Significant increases
in adaptation #investments will be necessary to reduce future mortality: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... #ClimateChange #Mortality

doi.org/10.5281/zenodo...

Book Burner

The books we burn 
at night to warm our 
wounded hearts, do 
we read them before 
lighting them aflame? 

Is it sacrifice or merely 
sacrilege to immolate 
these holy books, how 
can we stand the pain 
of this insane world? 

A quotation from Elizabeth Bear

Age had not yet defeated her on all fronts, though it was a war of attrition she knew she was fated to lose.

Elizabeth Bear (b. 1971) American author [pseud. for Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky]
Bone and Jewel Creatures, ch. 3 (2010)

More about this quote: wist.info/bear-elizabeth/85135…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #elizabethbear #age #gettingold #growingold #humancondition #mortality #oldage

A quotation from Epicharmus

I don’t want to die, but I don’t worry about being dead.
 
[Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil æstimo.]

Epicharmus of Kos (c. 540 – c. 450 BC) Greek dramatist and philosopher
Fragment 230 K-A = B 11 DK [tr. Douglas (1985)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/epicharmus/85106/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #epicharmus #cicero #death #dying #mortality #restinpeace

We Live In The Shadowlands

Several years ago, I watched Shadowlands and was deeply touched. The movie tells the true story of the author C.S. Lewis (Jack), who though an award-winning author, leads a relatively passionless life until he meets an American divorcee, Joy Gresham. It is the beginning of a deep love, a love that changes both of them in a powerful way, and deepens their faith in God. But their time together is short as Joy becomes terminally ill with cancer.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night afraid that something horrible has happened to someone that I love. So I pray for everyone I can think of. I reach my hand over and draw comfort from the warmth and breath of my wife who still sleeps beside me. Slowly my fear ebbs away because for another night the Angel of Death has passed over the doors of those who are closest to me. (Though I do not think it has very much to do with my prayers).

I want to pray as hard for everyone in the world as I pray for my family and friends. The Angel of Death does not always pass over. I do not want to live my life in fear. I do not want to be afraid of the pain that comes with being close to people and thereby miss the happiness that comes from their presence.

In the movie, Joy, in pushing Jack to be present to ALL of life, states: “We can’t have the happiness of yesterday without the pain of today. That’s the deal.”

We live in the Shadowlands, between the sunrise and sunset. But the sun is always present and as long as I cast a shadow, it means that I am alive. Alive to live and love and care and hurt to the fullest of my being.

That’s the deal.

(November 2007)

“More than half of all road deaths are people who aren't even in a car – they are walking, cycling or riding a motorcycle. When roads are designed as if only car drivers matter, these people are left dangerously exposed,” said Dr Etienne Krug Director of the Department of Health Determinants, Promotion and Prevention at WHO. “We know what works – strong laws and enforcement, safe infrastructure and vehicles with particular attention to lowering speed and addressing impaired driving. This declaration means we must all go further and faster.”

https://www.who.int/news/item/20-07-2026-road-deaths-fall-by-21--globally-but-stronger-action-is-needed-to-save-lives
#MobilityDesign #mortality #pedestrians #motorists #cars #speed #RoadTrauma

#Wildfire #smoke exposure and #mortality burden in the #USA under #climate change | Nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09611-w

The Hidden Death Toll of the 2025 Iberian Blackout: +167 Excess Deaths in Spain

If this matters to you, share it.

https://1ban.news/iberian-blackout-2025-excess-mortality/

#1ban #iberian #blackout #excess #mortality #science