At the very end

At
the very end, what will we look back on that will provide comfort and
satisfaction? What will we regret not doing? Are we likely to wish
that we had worked longer hours, worked harder, made
more money? That we had bought bigger TV sets, more expensive mobile
phones? I doubt it.



That we had accomplished certain things?
Climbed Mount Everest? That we had visited more places than anyone
else? That we excelled at some sport? I still don't think these are
all that important in the grand scheme of things.



I think the
most important thing are those who you have connected with at a deep
fundamental level. Those who you have laughed with, have bonded with,
have loved.

Prosecuted, not executed!

I remember once back when I was around 8 years old walking with my mam (mum/mom) back home from somewhere. My mam wanted to take a short cut across the school field. The school being Holy Trinity in Hartburn, Stockton-on-Tees, which was the school I was attending at the time. I said something like "we can't because there's a notice somewhere saying people will be umm . .I can't remember . .something like people will be executed" (the word I was trying to remember was prosecuted!). Anyway, my mother found that extremely amusing. Thankfully we never took the short cut, so here I am, still alive.

Is it of benefit to know our Blood Pressure?

I read the following BBC news article concerning blood pressure and cholesterol.  It says:

People are being encouraged to know their cholesterol and blood pressure numbers as well as they know their bank Pin code - because it could save their life.

In respect to blood pressure this advice conflicts with a study* cited by a BMJ paper.  It states:

[I]f you are a hypertensive man you would minimise your chances of overall as well as CV-related mortality if you do not find out about it. If you find out, your chances of dying increases but according to this study, you should still not treat your [hypertension].

So according to this study it's best if we never have our BP checked in our lives, but if we do and our BP is high, we should not take any medication for it.  This is quite radical!

In addition the BMJ paper mentions that we do not know if high blood pressure (HBP) causes major coronary heart disease (CHD) rather than being a mere correlation. It may be, for example, that it is stress that causes major coronary heart disease.  Since stress also causes high blood pressure, it only appears that high blood pressure causes CHD.  The paper also mentions:

[I]t may be that with age some organ or body part malfunctions and that HBP is required to minimise the negative consequences of such malfunction, the same way that fever helps fight disease. Indeed, patients with CHD may have greater HBP to properly perfuse vital organs and a drop in BP could even precipitate myocardial ischaemia and a subsequent CHD event.

So high blood pressure might be your body's response to things going wrong in your body, in which case artificially decreasing BP without addressing the original cause could be deleterious to one's health.

If we have high blood pressure should we be concerned?  The following figure from the BMJ paper is of interest:

 


Regarding this figure the paper says:

[O]verall deaths related to HBP hardly increase until an SBP of around 175 is reached. But even if SBP increases to about 185, the number of deaths rises from around 15 to 28, an increase of 13/1000 or 1.3%. Only when SBP exceeds the 185 mark does the number of deaths start to increase steeply. In this case, the difference between normal SBP and that over 190 is 27 (15–42) extra deaths/1000, or 2.7%.

SBP standing for systolic blood pressure (the higher figure in a BP reading). It's the dashed line we're interested in as this tracks cardiovascular deaths. We can see that deaths don't start to significantly increase until one's SBP is over 180.


Incidentally, my average blood pressure using my own home monitor over thousands of readings is 131/90.  The lower figure, the diastolic, is slightly too high (it needs to be less than 90).  However, my average diastolic reading when I see my doctor tends to be 5-10 less than what my own blood pressure monitor typically gives.

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* Barengo NC, Kastarinen M, Antikainen R, et al. The effects of awareness, treatment and control of hypertension on cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in a community-based population control of hypertension. J Hum Hypertens 2009;23:808–16.

Poor penguin chicks

Penguin chicks rescued by unlikely hero.

Thank heavens for the adult adelie. He did better than the useless cameraman!

Should we always obey the law?

I read the following article:



Bigger Than The Law: Becoming More Ethical Than the Society You Grew Up In



Obviously what is lawful or illegal doesn't necessarily correlate with what is moral. However, that doesn't imply we ought to disobey the law where a law is unjust -- it's complicated.



Many years ago I read about someone working in a bank in Germany who was continually illegally transferring money from rich peoples' accounts to poor peoples' accounts, but taking none of this money for himself.



Obviously this is illegal and needs to be punished, otherwise not punishing such behaviour would be carte blanche for people to disobey the law whenever they felt that some activity was moral even if illegal. The law has to be applied together with punishments, otherwise the whole fabric of the law is threatened. So, even if some action is moral, perhaps we ought not to do the moral thing if it involves disobeying the law.



On the other hand it seems clear to me that this bank worker did a very moral thing and that person is very much to be applauded. Indeed, it was sufficiently moral so as to overcome the deleterious effects on the legal system.



So that person did a very moral thing and the right thing, but nevertheless ought to be punished. There is no contradiction here. The best outcome would be if that person had never been discovered. I believe it was one of these poor people who complained about having too much money! sighs...



Problem here of course is the disgraceful inequality that capitalism generates.

I hate the Windows 10 Mail App

Ugh . . I had an important email that someone had sent me, so I foolishly imagined that selecting the archive option would ensure I don't ever lose it. Well, not in the Windows 10 mail app that comes bundled with windows 10 ...



Here's what I thought would happen:



That it would copy the existing email and place the copy in some prominent archive folder for easy access.



What really happened:



Deletes the original email. Indeed, deletes it so thoroughly that it isn't either in the trash, deleted items, nor spam folders. Doesn't appear to even copy it as no archive folder seems to actually exist.



In short, it does the precise opposite of what you wished to do. Permanently deletes those important emails you wish to keep.



Fortunately, I use gmail so was still there on the gmail website. This time I've simply copied the text into a notepad file. Why the heck didn't I do this in the first place?? Do not trust Microsoft! Their software often seems to be designed by a malevolent despot designed for maximum annoyance and grief.

Class of 92

Just started reading this:

Class of 92 by Jason Ayres


A guy from the 2050's goes back in time to 1992.  He goes into a pub and it is £1.30 for a pint of "old peculiar".  (As an aside, Old Peculiar is vile!  I remember drinking a pint of it around 30 years ago -- never again.  Not as bad as wine though. There's only one drink worse than wine, and that's non-alcoholic wine.).  Anyway, at "Our Price" (does this shop still exist?  I guess not) chart CD's were being advertised at "just" £9.99 each.  CDs seven times the price of a pint? Guess the author has got these facts right.  People trying to make a profit knowing that people are replacing their vinyls! 



He says (or the time traveller says) there's no Internet in 1992? Pretty sure I referenced the Internet in this essay on the philosophy of science around that time. I paid someone to type it for me, and she put "Internat" by mistake, so I guess she hadn't heard of it though.