News for today's 2018

TURKEY’S FOREIGN POLICY POKER GAME

4:13 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtuWKTZsMK67X2xc6rPdXMlYFauxI6kZ6oDxCR10GPeJyfv_FwcJcuoZ7WMdiZF7-xv4po4jCcqW69cAoCKKBCarJHtT5zBDtL1JcI8bxanGgCcAKsQJEXuS1FcERbYtSHG0-XPY5KksyU/s1600/111010b1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtuWKTZsMK67X2xc6rPdXMlYFauxI6kZ6oDxCR10GPeJyfv_FwcJcuoZ7WMdiZF7-xv4po4jCcqW69cAoCKKBCarJHtT5zBDtL1JcI8bxanGgCcAKsQJEXuS1FcERbYtSHG0-XPY5KksyU/s400/111010b1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: red;"><b>WHAT DOES TURKEY HOPE TO ACHIEVE WITH ITS WAR THREATS AGAINST SYRIA?</b></span></span></div> <br /><div class="style5" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><b><i><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Article by <b>Halil M. Karaveli.</b> </span></b> </span></i></b><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Senior Fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center and the Managing Editor of the <i><span style="font-style: normal;">Turkey Analyst</span></i>. </i></span><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The TURKISH government appears to hope to deter the continued SYRIAN – and IRANIAN – deployment of the KURDISH card against TURKEY. But it is questionable whether TURKEY will succeed in deterring Damascus and Tehran since it is all too obvious that Ankara does not really want to go to war. Ankara would be well advised to change course, exploring the possibility of a truce with Damascus, with the two neighbors agreeing on a reciprocal cessation of support to their respective insurgencies.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="color: blue;">: </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">THE KURDISH INDEPENDENCE GAMBLE</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/double-dealing-in-iraq-and-syria.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/double-dealing-in-iraq-and-syria.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">On October 4, the TURKISH parliament approved a bill that authorizes the use of military force against “foreign countries”, after a mortar fired from SYRIA killed five civilians in the TURKISH border town Akçakale. Since then, TURKISH artillery has been returning fire, and the TURKISH military build-up along the border with SYRIA continues; TURKISH navy ships have left their base in Gölcük in the Marmara Sea, having reportedly set course toward the eastern Mediterranean. General Necdet Özel, the TURKISH chief of the General staff, has been touring the border region since the decision in parliament together with the army chief, making public appearances meant to signal TURKISH strength and determination to act against SYRIA. Representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have made equally bellicose statements that convey the impression that TURKEY is about to invade SYRIA.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>“WE CAN DESTROY SYRIA IN ONE HOUR”</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZ5Aq7RMYUvCcIjVIdWCu0k89paiL3VS1MgqhI_EFEiS7myAwe04cYEHpLnPskOruzcMTZYWeF7SLiL5Bcb5ZX8Fvichqz413r6JhGTqFsfSwv7Dvm2_YfsvfL58L2NMkwnKsSXk1t-mp/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZ5Aq7RMYUvCcIjVIdWCu0k89paiL3VS1MgqhI_EFEiS7myAwe04cYEHpLnPskOruzcMTZYWeF7SLiL5Bcb5ZX8Fvichqz413r6JhGTqFsfSwv7Dvm2_YfsvfL58L2NMkwnKsSXk1t-mp/s400/images.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned Damascus on October 5 that Ankara is prepared for war. “We are not war-lovers, but neither are we far from war,” Erdogan said. Egemen Bağış, the cabinet minister for EU affairs, assured that “We can destroy SYRIA in one hour”; Şamil Tayyar, an AKP member of parliament, followed suit, predicting that TURKEY will reach Damascus “within three hours”. Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, meanwhile, was more cautious, saying that the parliamentary authorization was designed as a deterrent. “We haven’t taken this step with the intention of going to war”, he assured. Beşir Atalay, a deputy prime minister, similarly stated that TURKEY did not intend to declare war on SYRIA, only to deter it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, TURKEY is in fact already at war – albeit an undeclared one – with SYRIA, since Ankara is actively supporting the rebels who are trying to bring down the regime in Damascus.  TURKEY has helped to arm the rebels, allowed them to use TURKEY as a base, and to freely cross the TURKISH-SYRIAN border. Thanks to this support, the rebels have succeeded in gaining control over parts of the areas of SYRIA that border TURKEY; as a consequence, TURKISH towns along the border have become exposed when the SYRIAN artillery engages the rebels. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet the bellicose statements of Erdoğan and other government representatives notwithstanding, an invasion of SYRIA is not something that TURKEY wants to embark on unilaterally, without the support of its Western allies. That is why Erdoğan is displeased with the UNITED STATES’ reluctance to take decisive action against the SYRIAN regime. Interviewed by CNN on September 5, the TURKISH prime minister chided the Obama administration for lacking initiative on SYRIA. The TURKISH army may indeed reach Damascus within three hours, but the aftermath, the specter of becoming bogged down in the quagmire in SYRIA is certainly not something that appeals to the decision makers in Ankara, however adventurous the TURKISH government may have become in its foreign policy since it decided to embark on the endeavor to bring about regime change in SYRIA.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Neither does the TURKISH public clamor for war against SYRIA; the SYRIAN regime change policy of the TURKISH government is on the contrary opposed by a clear majority of the population of TURKEY. According to the latest poll, only 28 percent approve the government’s SYRIA policy. A vast majority,76 percent, oppose TURKISH unilateral intervention in SYRIA; only 17 percent support TURKISH military action against the SYRIAN regime, while a military operation against SYRIA together with NATO is approved by 31 percent.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>TURKEYS GAMBLE IN SYRIA HAS NOT PAID OFF</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TURKEY has had to resort to military deterrence because its gamble in SYRIA has not paid off. Soon after the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began, the TURKISH government, which until then had nurtured a close partnership with the SYRIAN regime, gambled that what awaited al-Assad was a fate similar to the one that befell Qaddafi in LIBYA – another former friend of Erdoğan. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="color: blue;">: </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">KURDISH EQUATION </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/10/libya-syria.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/10/libya-syria.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/turkeys-erratic-foreign-policies-all.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/turkeys-erratic-foreign-policies-all.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzbRGqy-suunR1jODAiY_nuLq5-VLZsMHI4AKA9Mer11Z2WxRM280ABvlje4-kSV0IBiJNn9T-Xr9wN-RVt7H3I2GqePZ5q7v5nSRHb8L-xA52JB11UrA4WBNoGPeeW9VlNSDPlnNXtrJ/s1600/01-06-09-02-02-ithank-you-turkya0022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzbRGqy-suunR1jODAiY_nuLq5-VLZsMHI4AKA9Mer11Z2WxRM280ABvlje4-kSV0IBiJNn9T-Xr9wN-RVt7H3I2GqePZ5q7v5nSRHb8L-xA52JB11UrA4WBNoGPeeW9VlNSDPlnNXtrJ/s320/01-06-09-02-02-ithank-you-turkya0022.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><i>European Muslim Brotherhood Supports Loyaltyto Turkey Campaign (Logo) </i></b></span><br />  </td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not wanting to lose initiative to others, as had been the case in LIBYA, TURKEY abandoned its erstwhile friend in Damascus and adopted the cause of the Sunni rebels that it assumed were about to ascend to power; assuming that the Muslim Brotherhood – an ideological kin to the AKP – was going to be the new ruler of SYRIA, the TURKISH ruling party saw a new opportunity arise to expand its regional influence, this time by playing a sectarian card. However, positioning itself as an interventionist Sunni power, TURKEY has shouldered a sectarian cause not only in SYRIA but also in IRAQ, where it is in confrontation with the Shiite regime. Thus, this move has come at an unexpectedly heavy prize for Ankara.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MASTER OF THE NEW MIDDLE EAST</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">TURKEY had sought to establish itself as the preeminent power in the Middle East by having “zero problems” with all of its neighbors; this non-ideological, soft power approach has by now been thoroughly abandoned. TURKEY aspires, in the words of foreign minister Davutoğlu, to be the master of the new Middle East; but it relies increasingly less on the tools of soft power – trade and things like the impact of TURKISH television shows – and all the more on hard power in the form of arms supplies and military deterrence. But TURKEY’S means are far from matching its ambitions; in fact, its attempt to redesign its neighborhood, its commitment to bring about regime change in SYRIA, has exposed its internal vulnerabilities, which are being exploited by those powers that it has challenged.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><u><span style="color: blue;">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="color: blue;">: </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">TURKEY WOULD MAKE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE RESOLUTION OF THE SYRIAN CRISIS IF IT COULD BRING ITSELF TO RISE ABOVE THE SECTARIAN CONSIDERATIONS THAT HAVE DICTATED ITS REGIME CHANGE POLICY IN SYRIA </span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">article by<b> </b><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Halil M. Karaveli</span></b></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/turkeys-syrian-policies.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/turkeys-syrian-policies.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">WESTERN ARROGANCE AND IGNORANCE LED TO UNDERESTIMATE TURKEY </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/turkeys-middle-east-chess-game.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/turkeys-middle-east-chess-game.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/turkeys-sunni-crescent.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/07/turkeys-sunni-crescent.html</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>TURKEY SHOULD EXPECT INTERNAL TROUBLES AS A CONSEQUENCE OF ITS MEDDLING IN SYRIA</b>.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The SYRIAN regime has not only survived far longer than Ankara had calculated; it has – together with IRAN, its leading supporter – turned the table on TURKEY. Bashar al-Assad has allowed the KURDS in northern SYRIA to establish self-governing entities, while IRAN is suspected of lending crucial support to the KURDISH insurgency in TURKEY. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGciXmp1Gk4ilM78kcXBViTfBkCU0-B4v67eifb3QuJdeiitSEl_EGcvBcaKXJDSuBR1k04_6I2-KpPZLuVUBEu3Ee3d884r1sIB-YL9z1lHFzjB2wYDd49fxZl6gEUctT_g_1-RY1b7-m/s1600/kurdistan1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGciXmp1Gk4ilM78kcXBViTfBkCU0-B4v67eifb3QuJdeiitSEl_EGcvBcaKXJDSuBR1k04_6I2-KpPZLuVUBEu3Ee3d884r1sIB-YL9z1lHFzjB2wYDd49fxZl6gEUctT_g_1-RY1b7-m/s400/kurdistan1.gif" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The militants of the KURDISTAN Workers’ Party (PKK) have staged numerous attacks against the TURKISH army in the southeast of the country since summer and they have carried out a deadly terrorist attack in the city of Gaziantep which could be a harbinger of things to come. TURKISH government representatives have accused IRAN of being behind the surge in PKK attacks, and the IRANIAN chief of the General staff has indeed stated that TURKEY should expect internal troubles as a consequence of its meddling in SYRIA.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>TURKEY WILL TAKE MILITARY ACTION IF THE SYRIAN KURDS MAKE MOVES TOWARD AUTONOMY</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is against this background that TURKEY is threatening SYRIA with open war. What the TURKISH government hopes to deter is continued SYRIAN – and IRANIAN – deployment of the KURDISH card against TURKEY. The establishment of an embryonic, autonomous KURDISH entity in SYRIA is an unacceptable development for Ankara that fears the effect this will have on the KURDS across the border in TURKEY; in fact, Erdoğan has stated that TURKEY will take military action if the SYRIAN KURDS make moves toward autonomy. And the attacks of the PKK risk undermining TURKEY’S stability, and hence pose a potential threat to Erdoğan’s power.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>WHAT WAS AN ENTICING PROSPECT – A SYRIA WHERE AN IDEOLOGICAL ALLY OF THE AKP, THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD WOULD ASCEND TO POWER – HAS TURNED INTO A SECURITY NIGHTMARE FOR TURKEY</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">whose internal vulnerabilities are being exploited in retaliation. But it is questionable whether TURKEY will succeed in deterring Damascus and Tehran, since it is all too obvious that Ankara does not really want to go to war.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But even in that case, it is likely that the KURDISH problem, which TURKEY hopes to deter SYRIA and its backers from exploiting, will become even more intractable. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The effects of a regional conflagration that risks following on a TURKISH invasion of SYRIA are bound to be anything but stabilizing. As neither military deterrence nor war is likely to remove the threat to TURKEY’S security and territorial integrity, Ankara would be well advised to explore the possibility of a truce with Damascus, with the two neighbors agreeing on a reciprocal cessation of support to their respective insurgencies. Indeed, an influential TURKISH, pro-government strategist, Sedat Laçiner, proposes that TURKEY should not hesitate to talk with anyone in SYRIA – including with Bashar al-Assad – in order to neutralize the threat to its national security.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>TURKEY WILL TAKE MILITARY ACTION IF THE SYRIAN KURDS MAKE MOVES TOWARD AUTONOMY</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although that must be deemed an unlikely development, it is nonetheless notable that foreign minister Davutoğlu said last week that SYRIA’S vice president Farouk al-Sharaa would be acceptable as the leader of a transitional government; the idea was rejected by the SYRIAN rebels, but it suggests that the TURKEY will take military action if the SYRIAN KURDS make moves toward autonomy – between continued support to the rebels who are not set to bring down al-Assad anytime soon, which leaves TURKEY exposed to further retaliation, and an outright invasion of SYRIA which would almost certainly only aggravate TURKEY’S security situation.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmv4KwF6RKKuRPPw7EFgihjuIPP72fTippXAhs-_asYcOgutoGqDhzfneEA_Mt9IMACEyToEBMZkNUOlZjuu4KH4H1N4p9TBHXJ7vrOGtvuuhRGQzn6fY6mGK-PN-LBaTqRtzSCY7uqXn0/s1600/3130738740_001a3533d6_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmv4KwF6RKKuRPPw7EFgihjuIPP72fTippXAhs-_asYcOgutoGqDhzfneEA_Mt9IMACEyToEBMZkNUOlZjuu4KH4H1N4p9TBHXJ7vrOGtvuuhRGQzn6fY6mGK-PN-LBaTqRtzSCY7uqXn0/s400/3130738740_001a3533d6_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Neo Ottoman Empire visions? </span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The last time TURKEY threatened SYRIA with war was in 1998, when Ankara demanded that Damascus expel Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK. Damascus complied, and Öcalan shortly thereafter ended up in the prison in TURKEY where he remains to this day. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">But the KURDISH problem did not disappear, far from it, and neither will it this time around only because TURKEY is threatening SYRIA. The simple truth revealed by TURKEY’S involvement in the SYRIAN crisis is that the country that aspires to be the “master of the Middle East” is internally too weak and vulnerable to sustain such ambitions of grandeur.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue;">Comment by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring</span></u></b>: </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>1990, TURKEY AND SYRIA AT THE BRINK OF WAR OVER WATER</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Prior to the 1998 war threat by TURKEY over </span>Abdullah Öcalan<span style="color: black;">, in 1990 SYRIA and TURKEY where also at the brink of war over water, when TURKEY launched its </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Anatolia_Project" title="Southeastern Anatolia Project">Southeastern Anatolia Project</a><span style="color: black;">!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></u></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Background Information:</span></u></b><b><u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> </span></u></b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_politics#Middle_East">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_politics#Middle_East</a></span></div><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;"><b><i>TURKEY – SYRIA - WATER DISPUTE (1989)</i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, TURKEY and SYRIA are currently approaching a massive confrontation over water resources. Relations between the two countries, strained at best, have been exacerbated since the 1980s by growing tensions over water, which have brought them to the <b>brink of war several times</b>. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Despite the signing of a protocol ensuring SYRIAN access to Euphrates water in 1987, TURKISH development efforts have increasingly threatened to marginalize and even eliminate SYRIAN access to water. Most notably, the Southeast Anatolia (GAP) Project has provided </i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>FURTHER COMPLICATING THE ISSUE IS SYRIA’S CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR THE EXTREMIST PKK (KURDISH WORKERS’ PARTY)</i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>TURKEY, situated at the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates River system, extensive control over the flow of Euphrates water. TURKISH disruption of the flow of the Euphrates in January 1990 to fill water reservoirs in front of the Attaturk dam highlighted SYRIAN vulnerability to TURKISH control over upstream water resources. Further complicating the issue is SYRIA’S continued support for the extremist PKK (<b>Kurdish Workers’ Party</b>) in its insurgency against TURKEY, a move that has prompted TURKEY to threaten a blockade of water.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>In the future, TURKISH-SYRIAN disputes over water could <b>escalate into regional conflict</b>. Both SYRIA and IRAQ, situated downstream from Ankara, have become increasingly threatened by TURKEY’S large-scale consolidation efforts. Once fully operational, the GAP Project may reduce Euphrates water to SYRIA by 40% and IRAQ by up to 80%.<sup>6</sup> Such activity, critical for SYRIA, will also be significant enough to substantially affect IRAQ, currently somewhat autonamous because of its access to Tigris River water. In addition, aggressive TURKISH acquisition efforts, currently concentrated on the GAP Project, are anticipated in the future to focus upon Tigris River water as well. Though currently divided in their opposition to TURKISH efforts, such activity could nudge SYRIA and IRAQ – despite their differences – into a strategic alliance, possibly destabilizing the region and precipitating a regional conflict.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Further Background Information</span></u></b><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> on subject matter:</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/10/turkei.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/10/turkei.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">WITTY TURKS</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/01/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/01/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">EXPLAINING TURKEYS NUCLEAR POLICIES</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/turkeys-chess-game.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/turkeys-chess-game.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/turkey-and-central-asia.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/turkey-and-central-asia.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/turkey-shiite-persians-versus-wahhabi.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/turkey-shiite-persians-versus-wahhabi.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">TURKEY...... EMERGING POWER</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/seismic-shift-in-middle-east.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/seismic-shift-in-middle-east.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

TURKEY’S FOREIGN POLICY POKER GAME

WHAT DOES TURKEY HOPE TO ACHIEVE WITH ITS WAR THREATS AGAINST SYRIA? Article by Halil M. Karaveli. Senior Fellow with the Central Asia-C...

Windows 8 is launched at Eunice High School in Bloemfontein

2:52 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Introducing Eunice High School</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eunice <span style="font-size: small;">wa</span>s the first school in South Africa to be selected for the Microsoft Innovative Schools programme several years back. After that their principal, Paul Cassar, was the first South African educator to be featured on Vice <span style="font-size: small;">P</span>resident of Microsoft - Antony Salicito’s blog ‘<i>Daily Edventures</i> – <i>Antony Salicito’s 365-day look at global heroes</i>'. (Take a read by clicking on the image below). So it is not surprising that Eunice would take the initiative of launc<span style="font-size: small;">hing Windows 8 in the innovative way you'll read about in this post!</span> </span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dailyedventures.com/index.php/2012/01/05/twentieth-century-problem-meet-twenty-first-century-learning-skills-south-africa/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUOnyLmlqoM8_e4FvToeGCB6KC1G3KmQXDauFyL1wowzzxdpM2M7MD7TKaAOCny8EBvoM-UdkbzlCdaPNVWRigos5x3vhdRNnbj8jb1Usc6sOC6qOIaZrxdFMHKHk3cRHVpnc2x2ME78o/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Windows 8 launch at Eunice High School</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Windows 8 was launched on Friday 26 October at Eunice High School in front of 700 eager Grade 8-11 girls, with Anthony Salcito, VP for Microsoft Education, skyping in to talk to the group. Eunice is a government school in Bloemfontein and is part of the Microsoft Global Innovative Schools programme. The event kicked off with a demo of Windows 8, highlighting exciting new functionality and ways that Windows 8 can help teachers and learners. The girls had to get involved in the demo by helping to create a decorated photo taken of the assembly using our webcam and the app “Fresh Paint”. We emailed this off to Anthony to welcome him to South Africa and Eunice School.</span></span><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwJAROYqkvj4SbHHov1mFAR86yywycBOEGGfBS-FIz_VjrW1m0tVMf-TOmzxuCxXsLQzQxkhZ8U3TsCMY0oRGPWdTU9rI-pIb4z7HUKtFDnH6YuKxjmUFBtj3UhAt0GdXFZ7wsdOildLo/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9W1IQewRd9Rm_rjbUvC1-9r0a0x3n0pK1gOFKjps4AieiIrjVsmSZzsvxpCex5kMM8KKjn_znTrU9RGA23XyB0Ja5xQUsiE03-NYEapoLWcLWdaIIH2e3YahS3zX38c_u1TT1JsPUL4I/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Welcome note from the learners</span><b><br /></b></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTnBQnHZ8miU3doLdHE6Mohyo4W3xchRsNz0nhj0z90buOKEc282HUiga3sbao6QiJpg8AYfM1x30JCmrIo4ZC4CsVS3VQS_H5rqhQo3UrK_3k5A4j97htZzQyBxHJm-BGpGs-mg1cY4/s1600-h/image%25255B6%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggffSHwAZwIV-Z-fx2ROl72zlI-ptvASdJkZmyrn-8fKEZv5hf7rSc_1Zi3P-RIXlaQAioANKRN-POAZTRRU5vgo8LGqMjOs1-XtNZHz_awM3H9vo1y3nI7CYQ4RGA2oXqufFtdMEpVg4/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anthony Salcito on Skype</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b> Anthony shares his thoughts</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Anthony undertook an immense commitment <span style="font-size: small;"><b>to </b></span>spend 24 hours skyping into classrooms and assemblies around the world as part of the Windows 8 launch in the education space. Following the demo we connected to Skype and Anthony shared his thoughts on how technology can support education and more interactive teaching and learning approaches. He fielded around 10 questions from girls and teachers who were eager to hear his comments and ideas on how Microsoft is supporting developing countries, what makes Windows 8 special, how Microsoft works with students and ways that technology can bring learning to life.</span></span><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjKtgxol3YntBi6kt86g3OUfUc3NBlyPoRnydmALBqrU0E0Mxxc-DjMNZLXptzvueTw_-j7g-S2NMNp_-W2i6dbLTsHkSeD6zLJItcrJC5dVhgYf-BLfzLv4UYr06ixNSEuUGdWHq22ds/s1600-h/image%25255B12%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBTKVhWfllCjHAWAHRmUGCUsCBAKWO6NddroDBOJr0XYeGBD0_5KuOqEGBG9ta5KGD0uts2B1WmR3pWb2WGpKL1aMaocGM1YEDbLMEn50fVTckdBvY_nBWxr6Kc0Zv-JeGblSecLqACKY/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mr</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Cassar (principal) and Ms Singh (teacher) asking questions</span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjKtgxol3YntBi6kt86g3OUfUc3NBlyPoRnydmALBqrU0E0Mxxc-DjMNZLXptzvueTw_-j7g-S2NMNp_-W2i6dbLTsHkSeD6zLJItcrJC5dVhgYf-BLfzLv4UYr06ixNSEuUGdWHq22ds/s1600-h/image%25255B12%25255D.png"><br /></a></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDmXkn8GUaKogUyhnRWBzCaBWWm_X53beC_DOT4-S5HXNm9AGAWLaNm6beE8cxvwGwswGuB-2SnQZstsD_i6asJ2cmDIls-LwVkU-p-JGxmt0L6htpRT4bh5Ac1JWJPg-5DH3vwsD_I2I/s1600-h/image%25255B16%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EPdEi0dw0loA1XYMTcCG6FK9594K1oWvdqpWWy32dsoSC6kpEJjymrCS0CaBa-sw8_r_QkO-o8iUyxRbebMZlu86fIm7FXPYidYcZEnMy2attReVlm4forksY7Me4LeqiwU8hjVhLM4/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="254" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Skyping with Anthony Salcito</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="width: 400px;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhws30xBwqkbZepdAHHuL9W-aZDpKv2izui4U2JS3KGb5Shefu-MPGDhsVh-O5VNTwRLnhedoSHrZpQheE_u7zKVd727-w2ZPrh3XNWeJfns6glKTeIY_-_l2cUQ0Atu3COiCpFpDKQDb0/s1600-h/image%25255B19%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZU6Nmpx3QgvetUBwtdfNh5THAwebb2VdlngzfCIps8N7_vdmly7yAy3rD8gPoJy0if2NHET51sb7d5AU1d7V1hp-ddiAd5I0v5h_vN_KaQESj8pURz8EcyHk7whI0yDuXOpcALRdzig/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Angela from Microsoft chatting to the girls</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td> <td valign="top" width="200"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlzy5S-LWoZS9PWI7DRyCsdVOeKRx5kWOH9_I4AjfGJD0zkxTEoigyUNb0KSL6LDwBzIuklc2L9UM9pNp6-MNuFYYB2OQjlJWt4NHRhZDLOivxQu20UWSpdKJKqnlJaxRdCpRMXl5mDQ/s1600-h/image%25255B22%25255D.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBS5h07uUtY_NN919DcVPf__wpN5PnlNAldkeVuquHxy1-CsfObDL-LCz1vYJWYI7FUDACxQSGp1H1-z9wu6CYaitAYPty2Zv-hv11l8wg_TYuopcclBGuR13aRefRqbMHVlPAClXrZ6c/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thank you for the great chat Anthony!</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><b> </b><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Skype chat trended on Twitter</b></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The event was a great success and the school felt enormously proud to be part of a Microsoft global launch. The <i>#microsofteducation</i> hashtag trended in South Africa with all the girls<span style="font-size: x-small;">'</span> tweets on Anthony’s talk and Windows 8! </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A more <span style="font-size: small;">comprehensive </span>list of the tweets can be seen at this URL: <a href="http://storify.com/fibeal/record-of-tweets-anthony-salcito-vice-president-of#publicize">Eunice tweets about Anthony Salcito and Windows 8.</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We look forward to seeing the new ways that the teachers and leaners incorporate Windows 8 into their activities.</span></span> </span></span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFy94wIy4b1pJnmhhTujA_zPIVtpgWkNQKet1HPIH6KIc-YTv7E1JLmtcYPkBRmWm3johPHwgdIfmRwhlNqx1OwTTITe_152Xi1UYGzanv2vyXk5Ix-AF3bd5VQY2oAhfxAcLQ4k4vVy4/s1600-h/image%25255B25%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjixvHFGwetCyr4eyeDd7Ivjpzs9_knA8KSBuxTiFjjkC_wW4aFvc0QdCs_M7_-zlLAqHDOAYNszOgtw59SYh-w6NlmKLym_aF_-yoarklqB42hof_CEvJ7NC3Pod3LOaSAq3sUes8JUo0/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><a href="http://storify.com/fibeal/record-of-tweets-anthony-salcito-vice-president-of#publicize"></a></span></span></div>

Microsoft Windows 8 is launched at Eunice High School in Bloemfontein

Introducing Eunice High School Eunice wa s the first school in South Africa to be selected for the Microsoft Innovative Schools programme se...

Four Myths About Doctor-Assisted Suicide - NYTimes.com

11:46 AM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div id="opinionator" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div align="left"><h3 class="entry-title" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Four Myths About Doctor-Assisted Suicide</h3><address class="byline author vcard" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 0.829em; margin-bottom: 12px; display: block; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; ">By <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/ezekiel-j-emanuel/" class="url fn" title="See all posts by EZEKIEL J. EMANUEL" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; ">EZEKIEL J. EMANUEL</a></address><div class="entry-content"><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Philadelphia</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">IN a little more than a week, voters in Massachusetts will decide whether to allow doctors to "prescribe medication, at the request of a terminally ill patient meeting certain conditions, to end that person's life." A similar bill is being debated in New Jersey. Unfortunately, like so many health care questions, the debate about physician-assisted suicide is confused, characterized by four major falsehoods.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; "><strong>PAIN</strong> The fundamental claim behind arguments for physician-assisted suicide is that most patients who desire it are experiencing excruciating physical pain. The 1996 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit supporting a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide in Washington State summarized the conventional wisdom: "Americans are living longer, and when they finally succumb to illness, lingering longer, either in great pain or in astuporous, semi-comatose condition that results from the infusion of vast amounts of painkilling medications."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">But this view is false. A multitude of studies based on interviews of patients with cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease and other conditions have demonstrated that patients who desire euthanasia (in which a doctor administers a lethal drug) or physician-assisted suicide (in which the patient himself takes the lethal drug prescribed by the physician) tend not to be motivated by pain. Only 22 percent of patients who died between 1998 and 2009 by assisted suicide in Oregon- one of three states, along with Washington and Montana, where it is legal - were in pain or afraid of being in pain, according to their doctors. Among the seven patients who received euthanasia in Australia in the brief time it was legal in the '90s, three reported no pain, and the pain of the other four was adequately controlled by medications.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Patients themselves say that the primary motive is not to escape physical pain but psychological distress; the main drivers are depression, hopelessness and fear of loss of autonomy and control. Dutch researchers, for a report published in 2005, followed 138 terminally ill cancer patients and found that depressed patients were four times more likely to request euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. Nearly half of those who requested euthanasia were depressed.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">In this light, physician-assisted suicide looks less like a good death in the face of unremitting pain and more like plain old suicide. Typically, our response to suicidal feelings associated with depression and hopelessness is not to give people the means to end their lives but to offer them counseling and caring.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; "><strong>ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY</strong> A second misconception about assisted suicide is that it is the inevitable result of a high-tech medical culture that can sustain life even when people have become debilitated, incontinent, incoherent and bound to a machine. It is the "inevitable consequence of changes in the causes of death, advances in medical science, and the development of new technologies," as the appeals court put it.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">But the ancient Greeks and Romans advocated euthanasia. In modern times, debate about legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide was revived with intensity in England in the late 19th century, after a famous debate at the Birmingham Speculative Club. The first such bill introduced in the United States was in 1905, before the discovery of antibiotics and dialysis, much less respirators and feeding tubes. If interest in legalizing euthanasia is tied to any trend in history, it is the rise of individualistic strains of thought that glorify personal choice, not the advances of high-tech medicine.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; "><strong>MASS APPEAL</strong> A third misconception about assisted suicide is that it will improve the end of life for everyone. After all, death afflicts everyone, and legalized assisted suicide would allow any individual to avoid an excruciatingly painful death. But the fact is that, even in places where physician-assisted suicide is legal, very few people take advantage of it. In Oregon, between 1998 and 2011, 596 patients used physician-assisted suicide - about 0.2 percent of dying patients in the state. In the Netherlands, where euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have been permitted for more than three decades, fewer than 3 percent of people die by these means. And even if we add all the dying patients who even vaguely express an interest in assisted suicide, it amounts to much less than 10 percent. For the vast majority of dying patients, it will have no impact on improving the ends of their lives.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Whom does legalizing assisted suicide really benefit? Well-off, well-educated people, typically suffering from cancer, who are used to controlling everything in their lives - the top 0.2 percent. And who are the people most likely to be abused if assisted suicide is legalized? The poor, poorly educated, dying patients who pose a burden to their relatives.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; "><strong>A GOOD DEATH</strong>The last misconception about assisted suicide is that it is a quick, painless and guaranteed way to die. But nothing in medicine - not even simple blood draws - is without complications. It turns out that many things can go wrong during an assisted suicide. Patients vomit up the pills they take. They don't take enough pills. They wake up instead of dying. Patients in the Dutch study vomited up their medications in 7 percent of cases; in 15 percent of cases, patients either did not die or took a very long time to die - hours, even days; in 18 percent, doctors had to intervene to administer a lethal medication themselves, converting a physician-assisted suicide into euthanasia. (In the states where assisted suicide is legal, and under the proposed Massachusetts law, this intervention would be illegal.)</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; ">Instead of attempting to legalize physician-assisted suicide, we should focus our energies on what really matters: improving care for the dying - ensuring that all patients can openly talk with their physicians and families about their wishes and have access to high-quality palliative or hospice care before they suffer needless medical procedures. The appeal of physician-assisted suicide is based on a fantasy. The real goal should be a good death for all dying patients.</div></div></div></div></div><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/four-myths-about-doctor-assisted-suicide/?hp&pagewanted=print">http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/four-myths-about-doctor-assisted-suicide/?hp&pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Four Myths About Doctor-Assisted Suicide - NYTimes.com

Four Myths About Doctor-Assisted Suicide By EZEKIEL J. EMANUEL Philadelphia IN a little more than a week, voters in Massachusetts will deci...

Women Who Quit Smoking Do Live Longer - MedPage Today

8:15 AM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Life expectancy was dramatically improved among participants in Great Britain's Million Women Study who quit smoking compared with continuous smokers, confirming the previously uncertain benefits of smoking cessation in women, researchers said.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Although women who stopped smoking around age 50 remained at significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality compared with never-smokers (relative risk 1.56, 95% CI 1.49 to 1.64), it was much lower than the tripled risk of death seen in current smokers, according to Kirstin Pirie, MSc, of the University of Oxford in England, and colleagues.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"Even cessation at about 50 years of age avoids at least two-thirds of the continuing smoker's excess mortality in later middle age," the researchers wrote online in <em style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Lancet</em>.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Deaths from lung cancer were reduced markedly in quitters as well, irrespective of participants' age when they stopped smoking, Pirie and colleagues reported.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><em style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Lancet</em> published the report the day before the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Doll, MD, who led many of the early studies proving the dangers of smoking. Pirie and most of her co-authors work in the Richard Doll Building at the University of Oxford.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Changing Times, New Research</strong></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Although Doll's research clearly documented the early mortality suffered by smokers, it was conducted at a time when most longtime smokers were men. Smoking among young women did not peak until the 1960s. Thus, the mortality risks faced by women smokers have appeared to be lower in the available data.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">That is now set to change with the Million Women Study results, according to Sandra Adams, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"We knew this about men," she told <em style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">MedPage Today</em>. "We knew that, as people age and they continue to smoke, they have a lot of smoking-related diseases, and the earlier that they stop the better. But what this demonstrates is that the smoking-related deaths have been markedly underestimated in women."</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">In an accompanying editorial in <em style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Lancet</em>, Rachel R. Huxley, PhD, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and Mark Woodward, MD, of the University of Sydney in Australia, also applauded the study.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"Aside from its impressive sample size, the Million Women Study is distinct from previous large cohorts -- and superior for assessment among women of the full eventual hazards of prolonged smoking and the full benefits of long-term cessation -- because the participants were among the first generation of women in the U.K. in which smoking was widespread in early adult life, and although many continued smoking, many stopped before age 30 or 40 years," they wrote.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">They also noted estimates that some eight million tobacco-caused deaths will occur annually by 2030.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"Such estimates rely on hazard ratios from previous large cohort studies. Although most of the projected deaths are male, these new results suggest that the projected burden of smoking-related disease in women might need to be revised upwards," Huxley and Woodward suggested.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">More Than a Million Women</strong></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The Million Women Study was actually larger than that, with a total of more than 1.3 million originally enrolled from 1996 to 2001. The present analysis excluded about 100,000 with previous disease. Included were about 620,000 never-smokers at recruitment, 329,000 who had quit at some point in the past, and 232,000 who reported current smoking.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Participants completed questionnaires on current and past smoking at recruitment and again 3 years and 8 years later. Some 23% of current smokers at enrollment said they had since quit in the second survey. At the 8-year follow-up, a total of 44% of the original group of current smokers indicated they had quit.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Data on subsequent mortality, including causes recorded on death certificates, were taken from Great Britain's comprehensive registry.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The median birth year in the cohort was 1943 (interquartile range 1938 to 1946), putting the participants squarely in the female demographic that had the highest smoking rates. Mean age at enrollment was 55.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">During follow-up, some 66,000 participants died (6% of the total).</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Pirie and colleagues found that 12-year mortality rates among those reporting current smoking at the 3-year follow-up were roughly triple those of never-smokers, "largely irrespective of age," they reported (rate ratio 2.97, 95% CI 2.88 to 3.07).</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Light smokers (fewer than 10 cigarettes per day) were at substantially increased risk of death relative to never-smokers (12-year mortality RR 1.98, 95% CI 1.91 to 2.04).</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The results also confirmed that, of the 30 most common causes of death in the U.K., 23 were significantly greater in current smokers. The rate ratio for chronic lung diseases was a whopping 35.3 (95% CI 29.2 to 42.5), and for lung cancer it was 21.4 (95% CI 19.7 to 23.2).</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Other causes of death more common in smokers than nonsmokers were as varied as pancreatic cancer, motor neuron disease, and accidental or intentional injuries.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Dramatic Mortality Numbers</strong></p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">But perhaps the most dramatic findings were on mortality risks in former smokers. Pirie and colleagues stratified the results according to the age at which ex-smokers reported having quit (younger than 25, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, and 45 to 54).</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">For participants who stopped smoking by their mid-30s, the risk of all-cause mortality was hardly different from that of never-smokers (RR 1.05, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.11). Those quitting at 35 to 44 were at 20% greater risk of death than never-smokers, and those quitting at 45 to 54 were at 56% increased risk.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Lung cancer risk was significantly increased in ex-smokers regardless of the age at quitting -- with relative risks of 1.56 in those stopping before age 25 to 5.91 in participants quitting at 45 to 54, all with minuscule <em style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">P</em> values -- but still vastly lower than the relative risk of greater than 20 in those still smoking.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">"Stopping well before age 40 years would avoid well over 90% of the excess hazard in continuing smokers," Pirie and colleagues wrote.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">But, they stressed, "this does not ... mean that it is safe to smoke until age 40 years and then stop."</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The 20% excess mortality risk in early quitters is still substantial, they argued, "causing one in six of the deaths among these ex-smokers."</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">They also noted that their results reflected adjustments for age, socioeconomic status, drinking habits, physical activity levels, oral contraceptive use, menopausal status, and use of menopausal hormone therapy, all as reported by participants. Except as reflected in these variables, however, exposures to disease-causing agents other than tobacco smoke were not tracked.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">In their commentary, Huxley and Woodward said the results point up "the need for effective sex-specific and culturally specific tobacco control policies that encourage adults who already smoke to quit and discourage children and young adults from starting to smoke."</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Adams agreed, telling <em style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">MedPage Today</em> that, with the dangers of cigarette smoking now thoroughly proven in women as well as men, the major research need now is to identify such policies and interventions.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">But she added that cigarette smoking is not the only tobacco-related hazard, and that it would be helpful to have better data on health effects of other tobacco products.</p><p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">These include hookah (also known as shisha), smokeless tobacco, and so-called electronic cigarettes that deliver nicotine vapor along with a variety of flavorings and other chemicals, some of which are known to be hazardous in other settings.</p></div><a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Smoking/35605">http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Smoking/35605</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Women Who Quit Smoking Do Live Longer - MedPage Today

Life expectancy was dramatically improved among participants in Great Britain's Million Women Study who quit smoking compared with conti...

When Our Outlet Fails Us

11:14 PM Tukiyooo 0

You unwrap the new video game.<br /><br />You turn on the sporting event.<br /><br />You go see the movie.<br /><br />You tinker around in the garage. <br /><br />We do these things because they relieve us from reality. On a day where work, home, family, or friends disappoints us, we have that optional list of things that keep us from thinking about reality for a while.<br /><br />Some people call it their "outlet."<br /><br />But what happens when the thing that causes us to jettison out of reality abruptly crashes to the ground? Or - even worse, slowly sinks into oblivion. What happens then?<br /><br />I am asking myself that question tonight, on a night where my outlet - sports - failed me. Michigan couldn't score a touchdown in a 23-9 loss to Nebraska, and the Detroit Tigers couldn't score a run in a 2-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants. My night ended with a bad taste in my mouth, when it could have just ended on a good, relaxing note simply by ignoring both games.<br /><br />Instead, I listened to the Tigers game on the radio (I refuse to listen to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on principle), and had the Michigan game on mute on my TV. After a very nice day sleeping in, grocery shopping, exercising, and cleaning, I wanted to end it by cheering on my sports teams.<br /><br />Instead, my sports teams decided not to show up. At least, that's how it felt.<br /><br />So what am I to do? What are any of us to do? Michigan lost control of the Legends division with the loss. The Tigers are on the brink of being swept in the <i>World Series</i>. After following the teams passionately for the past few months, it feels like ignoring them would be to go cold turkey on them.<br /><br />You get to the part of the video game that you can't figure out.<br /><br />Your team keeps losing.<br /><br />Your movie was lousy.<br /><br />Your tinkering is just breaking things instead of fixing them.<br /><br />These are the things that are supposed to relax us, and instead they infuriate us! We may even get more stressed over our hobbies than we do over our regular lives! Why do we do this?<br /><br />I'll tell you why: because the payoff is just that sweet.<br /><br />You do these things hoping that we can see everything just like we have in our heads:<br /><br />You win the video game.<br /><br />Your team wins the championship.<br /><br />You have seen the best movie of all time.<br /><br />You created the greatest machine ever made.<br /><br />We keep going back because we hope that, someday, those "outlets" will reap the finest rewards.<br /><br />We will go to another Michigan game.<br /><br />We will turn on the television or radio tonight to see what happens in Game 4.<br /><br />And next season, we'll be back again. They can crush our souls, take our money, and stomp on our hopes and dreams, but we'll always come back. We'll come back more passionate than ever. We'll call into radio shows, check out the websites, buy the merchandise, and drive our friends and family crazy. We may take a vacation from our outlet to clear our heads, but we'll return. We know that someday, we will be lifted into a feeling of euphoria - a feeling that no one can take away from us.<br /><br />And we will celebrate in triumph knowing that we were there all along - through the thick <b>and</b> the thin.

When Our Outlet Fails Us

You unwrap the new video game. You turn on the sporting event. You go see the movie. You tinker around in the garage. We do these things bec...

Babe of the Week: Animal Costumes

9:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />And now for something completely different! Instead of hot babes this week, IWS honors some cute, fun and hilarious pet costumes for Halloween.<br /><br />First up is Fire Truck Corgi …<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGwiFfSyiaVVJeNt3Jev2n4o5OmBEYsjLB0F0GjMb2LS8q5mcrHQT0X9xZk7KkF4otBduqPrDQBRLpSzTYOpgl68WEgv3UYFuyDXvhbE434NUdwJAYo86HTSYSpupdnnwRk4qMTom5GM/s1600/Corgi+Fire+Truck+Halloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGwiFfSyiaVVJeNt3Jev2n4o5OmBEYsjLB0F0GjMb2LS8q5mcrHQT0X9xZk7KkF4otBduqPrDQBRLpSzTYOpgl68WEgv3UYFuyDXvhbE434NUdwJAYo86HTSYSpupdnnwRk4qMTom5GM/s320/Corgi+Fire+Truck+Halloween.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Here’s Pumpkin Cat…<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9e4dlcy7EQGEnRWJCoKBQh2ae6S8sxQVVQR3c_fE5R42Sb5pfe-UveQVIYrcENnYPUwIA4hLwaJ20ib2kbS-VZtbtpqfdUf8bOD7UTsc0DnYP2J4_obWBDHzEPJHfR4pHZQiMa7F-AgI/s1600/pumpkin+cat+costume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9e4dlcy7EQGEnRWJCoKBQh2ae6S8sxQVVQR3c_fE5R42Sb5pfe-UveQVIYrcENnYPUwIA4hLwaJ20ib2kbS-VZtbtpqfdUf8bOD7UTsc0DnYP2J4_obWBDHzEPJHfR4pHZQiMa7F-AgI/s320/pumpkin+cat+costume.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />How ‘bout a nice hot Baked Pug Potato…<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnT1-le788GICrrC9OSJ5N9VC5UdBSgyTGYofyOCPPERTigtnYXezbgdJrTMTQfPLcHndiD85edkfQls8QEs-V_j3TVzUxHFQ9mtQqfGAQ5ok8JL54McTjxoXnEUIQmoniExHGejezCaQ/s1600/Pug+Baked+Potato+Halloween+Costume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnT1-le788GICrrC9OSJ5N9VC5UdBSgyTGYofyOCPPERTigtnYXezbgdJrTMTQfPLcHndiD85edkfQls8QEs-V_j3TVzUxHFQ9mtQqfGAQ5ok8JL54McTjxoXnEUIQmoniExHGejezCaQ/s320/Pug+Baked+Potato+Halloween+Costume.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br />Awww little kitty is a lobster in a pot on the stove …<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrwDrVS-6-0UnPlnQqt41348X67UccdxmqwMmjkdbKQ5T0R07v2Q0vf-xEZWxMyAhDsmYKQH-9m9INnBv4XJPTW1ntyZwye5f7v8uoyuV318rqn_BG1Wa0l-mTkiDEstJIX-zFRxwCu2k/s1600/Lobster+Cat+Costume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrwDrVS-6-0UnPlnQqt41348X67UccdxmqwMmjkdbKQ5T0R07v2Q0vf-xEZWxMyAhDsmYKQH-9m9INnBv4XJPTW1ntyZwye5f7v8uoyuV318rqn_BG1Wa0l-mTkiDEstJIX-zFRxwCu2k/s320/Lobster+Cat+Costume.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />BatDog!!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCWaU-wTdQ7P_bqgd2d2aO43PqcoavaUKMXn-ccqrWr2tSuj02HtxdX1Riy0pzefUvvM9-lHUldXLfYryP7koTJABN5YIKFZDXJJd6HULLrTPcRBPbTBrJrZdkuxN07gWzV_fH4LNhts/s1600/Dog+Batman+Costume+Halloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRCWaU-wTdQ7P_bqgd2d2aO43PqcoavaUKMXn-ccqrWr2tSuj02HtxdX1Riy0pzefUvvM9-lHUldXLfYryP7koTJABN5YIKFZDXJJd6HULLrTPcRBPbTBrJrZdkuxN07gWzV_fH4LNhts/s320/Dog+Batman+Costume+Halloween.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />And of course, Elvis Cat has left the building …<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixh6IZT06f8KfZSPk37lynWdKKi3-AutLSyUWADhenyqjg5sdsB49l73zyPDVnCndT_C8x4ZiapxcFQVhynrgTYfm6XkSL9arN9bF8nujWr7Y3nuEgRO2KXWm9jbpXbHGlNasGwOMoP8Q/s1600/Elvis+Cat+Costume+Halloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixh6IZT06f8KfZSPk37lynWdKKi3-AutLSyUWADhenyqjg5sdsB49l73zyPDVnCndT_C8x4ZiapxcFQVhynrgTYfm6XkSL9arN9bF8nujWr7Y3nuEgRO2KXWm9jbpXbHGlNasGwOMoP8Q/s320/Elvis+Cat+Costume+Halloween.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />So there you go kids! Some of the cutest Halloween costumes you’ll see anywhere! Don’t forget to join us on I’m With Stupid today for <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid/2012/10/28/open-line-sunday" target="_blank">Open Line Sunday</a> and call in and talk to us!<br /><br /></div>

Babe of the Week: Animal Costumes

And now for something completely different! Instead of hot babes this week, IWS honors some cute, fun and hilarious pet costumes for Hallowe...

Today's archidose #628, Part 2

2:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

When I snapped some photos of the <a href="http://www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org/">FDR Four Freedoms Park</a> on Roosevelt Island during its <a href="http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=4867">Archtober Open House</a> (posted as <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2012/10/todays-archidose-628.html">Today's archidose #628</a>) there were some large tents occupying the lawn for opening festivities. On my second visit a week later the tents were gone, so below are photos of the lawn, moving from the north to the south (note the optical illusion that happens with the tapered plan of the lawn, visible in the second-to-last photo).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8128771901/" title="FDR Four Freedoms Park by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="FDR Four Freedoms Park" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8186/8128771901_433511c888_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8128773067/" title="FDR Four Freedoms Park by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="FDR Four Freedoms Park" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8185/8128773067_124e4eb8e6_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8128773847/" title="FDR Four Freedoms Park by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="FDR Four Freedoms Park" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8335/8128773847_4de7cccc2f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8128774611/" title="FDR Four Freedoms Park by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="FDR Four Freedoms Park" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8050/8128774611_befdd94362_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8128775387/" title="FDR Four Freedoms Park by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="FDR Four Freedoms Park" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8050/8128775387_f2b004004c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:<br /><blockquote>:: Join and add photos to the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/archi-dose/">archidose pool</a>, and/or<br />:: Tag your photos <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/archidose/">archidose</a></span></blockquote>

Today's archidose #628, Part 2

When I snapped some photos of the FDR Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island during its Archtober Open House (posted as Today's archid...

Hot tub is open!

4:12 AM Tukiyooo 0

<span style="font-size: large;">The hot tub is open for business!  </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Finally!  </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The Hot Tub company sent up two guys to replace some parts yesterday.  They drove 2 hours from Cork.  I thought they would be in and out in an hour but they were at it all day.  I think they had to practically rebuild the Hot Tub operator.  They left at 5pm and the hot tub began to heat.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This morning, I got a text from Ciaran who is in Belfast to check if it was warm.  I dipped my foot in and it was so nice that I promptly hopped in and sent him a text of the steam rising!</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">It was -1 degree celcus last night, so today is perfect weather for hot tubbing in the garden.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here's my twin sister and I enjoying cocktails in the hot tub!</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXAqxctshtguVL9ZDbJAjqxzypQiUZjvvuiskb2tQSjeSUZrukAZS3XPmyyO-FyCUN9beEEButVJgE_PTsk4Ov0g33NYIUJhB5N8Gyp2yINTle1Mum7S-QWfFi77XH5Hty68rb0xmqqlc/s1600/IMG_2274%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXAqxctshtguVL9ZDbJAjqxzypQiUZjvvuiskb2tQSjeSUZrukAZS3XPmyyO-FyCUN9beEEButVJgE_PTsk4Ov0g33NYIUJhB5N8Gyp2yINTle1Mum7S-QWfFi77XH5Hty68rb0xmqqlc/s320/IMG_2274%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUV5jj_4o_FaMdrBpXnNro1CgRwmIE6XWiYn80idqyKO7DZoGXNCTksSt0yjFm3JMta1-E7nFKEy3UU44t-Z54UJv46MJ-nTczttiBfniKz6Xna8AgTQISN7PoDr740F9NNPtR0PGVjSNA/s1600/IMG_2276%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUV5jj_4o_FaMdrBpXnNro1CgRwmIE6XWiYn80idqyKO7DZoGXNCTksSt0yjFm3JMta1-E7nFKEy3UU44t-Z54UJv46MJ-nTczttiBfniKz6Xna8AgTQISN7PoDr740F9NNPtR0PGVjSNA/s320/IMG_2276%5B1%5D.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The view from the hot tub - what a beautiful sky!</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLoLHqX37W7DCaZd64U1nV6HSWJh3tPtTl5dmNJlbiSZudrrE0XJUvvdcpXulZfwLG8u7QVV7ZnDrnfBDAC87aoGZgPfo6RruwLTzrcNc5DBOroV2AUfP_kX7-3mcI78M272Tg8d8JfeuK/s1600/IMG_2275%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLoLHqX37W7DCaZd64U1nV6HSWJh3tPtTl5dmNJlbiSZudrrE0XJUvvdcpXulZfwLG8u7QVV7ZnDrnfBDAC87aoGZgPfo6RruwLTzrcNc5DBOroV2AUfP_kX7-3mcI78M272Tg8d8JfeuK/s320/IMG_2275%5B1%5D.JPG" width="239" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLtboiraOxSFIrI4mvOTQ_bGXu5tQSwGmRh_Qia8wLZB3FccISmDpBHa9FVZRVuJRqED216YbbqG8E0bUVgiwj-GfjQfWsonWj_rn3yf9TN1bjtSjazLS61I_1_pcAtifdcMxBQ6bdCBKt/s1600/IMG_2278%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLtboiraOxSFIrI4mvOTQ_bGXu5tQSwGmRh_Qia8wLZB3FccISmDpBHa9FVZRVuJRqED216YbbqG8E0bUVgiwj-GfjQfWsonWj_rn3yf9TN1bjtSjazLS61I_1_pcAtifdcMxBQ6bdCBKt/s320/IMG_2278%5B1%5D.JPG" width="239" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>

Hot tub is open!

The hot tub is open for business! Finally! The Hot Tub company sent up two guys to replace some parts yesterday. They drove 2 hours fro...

Life, Interrupted: Changed by Cancer - NYTimes.com

3:50 AM Tukiyooo 0

On Monday evening I stood on a stage in front of a thousand people and talked about what I've learned since my diagnosis with cancer two years ago at the age of 22.<br /><br><br /><br>I was speaking at the Angel Ball, the yearly red-carpet event for the Gabrielle's Angel Foundation, which in this past week alone raised nearly $4 million for blood cancer research. I had never spoken in front of so many people before. It was one of the proudest moments in a tough journey over the past two years. And I was able to meet world-class doctors and researchers, other cancer survivors and even some celebrities.<br /><br><br /><br>On the drive over, though, my nerves were shot. All I could think about was whether I had spent enough time memorizing my speech, and whether I'd chosen the right dress. Lurking in the back of my mind was a laundry list of "to do's" and checklists thrown like scraps on a mounting pile of anxiety.<br /><br><br /><br>But there was something different about this stress. It took me a minute to put my finger on it, but there it was: For the first time since my diagnosis I was stressed about something that didn't have to do with cancer.<br /><br><br /><br>I bristle when the word "gift" is used in the same sentence as "cancer." There is no upside to having a life-threatening illness. It can ruin lives, friendships, families and dreams, and trying to focus too much on finding a silver lining can trivialize real suffering. I would never have voluntarily chosen to go down this path. But like any other struggle, cancer has changed me. I wish I could learn about overcoming struggle by training for a marathon or applying for a new job, like many of my peers are doing in their early 20s. But life is unpredictable, and we don't always get to choose our battles.<br /><br><br /><br>Cancer robs you of your ability to look at the big picture — or at least obscures it. The news that I had cancer ripped away the expectations I had of myself to be a certain type of person with a certain type of life. I used to think that looking at the "big picture" meant figuring out 1-year, 5-year and 10-year plans. Back in 2010, I had just graduated from Princeton with highest honors, and I felt pressure to get on the fast track to success — whatever that meant. Like a lot of my peers, I was in the thick of the culture of anxiety surrounding achievement. I signed a two-year contract at a fancy corporate job even though I knew I much preferred Birkenstocks to high heels, creative writing to spreadsheets. This path wasn't right for me, but even though I felt miserable I continued going to work each morning because I was focused on the idea that having a practical, long-term plan was part of seeing the big picture.<br /><br><br /><br>I like to think that I eventually would have found my way to a career that both inspired me and paid the bills. But before I was able to figure out what that was, the cancer showed up. My life was interrupted. My doctors told me I would need intensive chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. From the looks on their faces, I could see that there wasn't going to be any quick fix for my disease.<br /><br><br /><br>I had spent a lifetime focusing on the big picture, but cancer forced me to look at the small picture. I had no choice. I quickly learned that trying to predict the results of a bone marrow biopsy or a round of chemotherapy was a torturous and futile exercise. So, for the first time in my life, I began to focus on the present.<br /><br><br /><br>In the midst of doctor's appointments and long hospitalizations I tried to organize my days around small acts of happiness by asking myself: What will make me feel better right now? How do I handle the worry I'm feeling right in this moment? Gone were the vague worries about a future career. Sometimes the answer to those questions was writing in my journal, visiting with friends and family, or eating peanut butter cups and watching bad romantic comedies. On other days, it meant having a good cry under my comforter. Little did I know, I was building muscles along the way — not lats and biceps, but invisible muscles that now kick in to carry me through stressful situations.<br /><br><br /><br>And so there I was, sitting in the limousine, a few minutes before I was to give my speech. I was nervous — that wasn't going away. But I also felt a sense of calm. After two years of nonstop chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, I realized that as a cancer patient, I had experienced my share of real stress and pressure, and I had learned how to confront it and cope with it.<br /><br><br /><br>I still can't see the big picture — the long view remains obscured. I can't change that. But I'm noticing that I am changed. And I learned on Monday night that giving a speech in front of a big crowd — something that would have been difficult to imagine before my cancer diagnosis — was now well within reach.<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/life-interrupted-changed-by-cancer/?src=recg">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/life-interrupted-changed-by-cancer/?src=recg</a>

Life, Interrupted: Changed by Cancer - NYTimes.com

On Monday evening I stood on a stage in front of a thousand people and talked about what I've learned since my diagnosis with cancer two...