Slashdot Mirror
Leonard Nimoy: Smoking Is Illogical
An anonymous reader writes "My boyhood hero, actor Leonard Nimoy,
has developed lung disease. To those still smoking and in the grips of marketing induced denial, he says 'quit now.' Small acts of goodness make the universe a better place."
Also, Why so many short submissions? Is slashdot trying to dilute the FUCK BETA?
No More Mr Nice Guy !!
It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.
--Spock in 'Errand of Mercy'
Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans.
--Spock in 'I, Mudd'
How the hell is this even news?
Smoking causes lung cancer?
Do you think we're all that fucking retarded that we didn't know that?
However - My Grandfather died of lung cancer in his 80's, and he NEVER smoked.
As a smoker and 15 year user for Slashdot - let me just say you guys fucking suck hard these days - I've tried hard to not care with all the politics and beta shit going on - but this kind of story is just bullshit - I hope /. remembers its history one day...
I'm not signing anything
You're 82, Leonard. Holding yourself up as an example of the ravages of smoking after reaching the age of 82 is illogical. Refusing to accept death at 82 is illogical. Go with grace.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
not supporting life extension is also illogical. Space fans really need to get their priorities straight, it's highly unlikely that any Star Trek-level of technology will ever happen, so if you want to explore the immense void out there, you'll have to live longer, a LOT longer. So never mind just quitting smoking; we'll need a serious, global, universal project to really understand life processes and extend youth.
It is not my fault! Marketing made me do it!
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Is it even possible to be in 'marketing denial' at this point? Hasn't everyone had it pounded into them that smoking is bad, second hand smoke is bad, and now we even have third hand smoke? Is it really possible to live in the US and not understand the problems of smoking?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Deciding not to breed is the best decision any human can make. Grandiose sentiments be damned.
Perhaps in the distant past smoking marketers claimed smoking was safe, but I never saw any sign of that... they simply make smoking glamorous while glossing over the dangers, but it's not like they actively hide the dangers.
Nor is it the case that any person who smokes does not know the danger at this point. There are millions of sources telling you smoking is bad. People do things they know are bad for them for whatever reason; that will never stop and it's unfair to blame marketing for human nature.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why would someone ignore all the warning signs and stumble blindly ahead on a path to certain doom?
When others who did the same all shared the same fate?
When trusted community members spoke up and said "were asking you to stop because we care?"
Why would anyone ignore all of the clear warning signs of impending death?
Was he out of his vulcan mind?!
Leonard Nimoy is 82 and he probably has a few more years ahead of him. Was he planning on living to be 1000 years old?
Smoking has pluses and minuses. News flash: people like to smoke, just like they like drinking alcohol and using other substances. Ask a heroin user whether he likes heroin -- he loves it. So it's not illogical to take heroin, but it's a choice that can have a negative long-term effect.
If you're already 82, like Leonard Nimoy, you might want to try smoking. Or heroin. The benefits are immediate. And you probably won't live to experience the consequences.
yup - they're diluting and modding down our efforts in an attempt to make the situation look less dire for the casual reader.
RIP slashdot.
We got this from Yul Brynner in 1989. Should have listened to him then, Skippy. Anyway, like the South Park cheerful smoking song goes, "If it gives me cancer when I'm 80 I don't care, who the hell wants to be 90 anyway?" I guess the answer to that one must be "Leonard Nimoy."
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I switched to ce4, stopped my asphyxia + I can smell again === =)
So why is it when I open up Slashdot, I get the Beta page?
Clearly we need to take this to EVERY OTHER DICE PROPERTY UNTIL THEY STOP PUSHING THIS CRAP OUT.
70% of the comments over the last few days have been nothing but 'Fuck Beta' or 'Slashcott' garbage. I'm mostly indifferent about the beta, but if all the 'Slashcott' idiots leave when the new layout is live to all, I welcome it. Fewer stupid comments.
The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
I wish I had mod points for this.
The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
Yeah, a lot of people are moving to personal vaporizers as cigarette replacements. A a nic-free vaper myself, it's something I actively encourage agreeable smokers that I see to do. It's a lot healthier and far cheaper in the long run.
The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
I bet the /. beta team are all smokers.
It isn't logical to completely destroy the essence of a popular website just to try to extract some extra money from it, but destroy it in the process.
Kinda like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs just so you can try to extract the eggs quicker. Sorry, but you may find the essence of the site dies in the process.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
Becoming addicted to a drug that doesn't even get you high and whose only effect is to annoy everyone around you is pathetic.
I use something like this -> http://i.imgur.com/ciomNzs.jpg
Only nicotine - none of the tar or any other 500 chemicals which burn in a cigarette.
If you gonna live till 82, you gonna develop any disease you can possibly develop.
Anyone who blames their smoking habit on marketing is a blithering moron. Blithering. Moron.
Nimoy is Old Spock. If you want to brainwash the new generation of Star Trek fans, pay Zachary Quinto to say smoking is illogical. But dumb impressionable kids don't even care about Star Trek. If you really want to stop kids from smoking before they start, the logical choice of mouthpiece is Katy Perry. Everybody listens to Katy Perry. That's why they call her Katy Perry.
Uh, you think beta is bad? The current layout is terrible.
I wish they would go back to the 1997 layout. Clean, simple, straightforward.
She's dead Jim., Dice filling the pipe with Slashvertisements (because they thought they could get paid for Slashads AND for regular ads) has killed the revenue, they took a complete writedown on the site already. Frankly at this point all one can do is move to Alt when its ready because Dice considers /. a BRAND and by "rebranding" they think they can make it into another Digg/Gawker/Fark. Hell the comments section might as well have "powered by Disqus" for all the ripping off they did.
As for TFA, as someone who smoked for 30 years and tried everything,patch,gum, pills, the only thing that worked was the "Ego style" ecigs, the ones with the separate tank and the 510 threading. Thanks to those I've been cigarette free for going on 3 months and have gone from a 30mg to 24mg to 18mg, although I'll probably stay on 18 a couple months as I tried 11mg in a VG and couldn't tell I was smoking the thing, maybe an 80/20 PG to VG will let me drop below 18Mg.
But as TFA shows the sad thing is you WILL get COPD, doesn't matter how long ago you quit as you WILL get it if something else don't get you first. So if you are quitting do it because you don't want to be smelling like smoke or be out of breath, because if you have smoked more than a couple of years you might as well accept COPD is in your future regardless.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
We get it, shut up now and stop spamming.
Nigga fags love to be keepin it real. Real dumb!
I've been redirected at all times to the beta site for about a week now and the amount of 'fuck beta' and 'slashcott' is really annoying. This site used to be more than the sum of the visitors. Nowadays all the empty complaining and profanity adds up to basically yet another glimpse of the american fondness of the word 'fuck'. The wolf of Wall Street recently set a new world record to cater for that american fondness, btw, snatching the record from another american movie (Pulp Fiction).
Leonard Nimoy has a lung disease that will kill him, but it isn't cancer. If he takes the opportunity to say something about the disease to the press and explain that it most likely was caused by smoking, then he should get at least a few respectful responses to that. All he gets now is techno-vomit by people frustrated by change.
Stop diluting my news (for nerds) with your anonymous barfing and let me get some of the intelligence that Slashdot is known for, OK?
What? Quitting is easy!
I've done it lots of times.
And yet science cannot say without any doubt that it does cause cancer.
And look at the number of other things that could be causing lung cancer, vehicle emissions, asbestos (commonly used for the brake pads on your vehicle) , coal emissions, fire retardants which are used on/in everything), smog, chlorine gas from in your shower, I could go on...............
Oh yeah Prescription drugs cause numerous forms of cancer, and other disease. But we can't talk about that...
No one in my family that smoked died of lung cancer, but smoking does take it toll on the rest of your body. Mostly hardening of blood vessels.... Some died from other forms of cancer, and the rest of natural causes.
This must be Obama's new health plan and the Federal governments attempt to control what they can control, figuring it would save the health care system money. And I point back to prescription drugs, and the toll they take on peoples heath, but we make sure we these remain part of your daily diet.
Only on the internet do you find denial or people with hardline beliefs, and refuse to only take what someone says into consideration.
Our friend Leonard Nimoy is probably feeling very mortal these days. So would you if you were 82 years old. I hope he enjoys every day he has left, spending as much time as he can spoiling his grandkids and telling Zachary Quinto more about the Zen of Spock.
One of the things I learned in a certain Twelve Step program I've worked the steps in for many years is that death is just another part of life, only the final part, and one that comes to everyone at some time or another. There is not much point in being concerned about the how and when of that final moment in this existence. It just wastes energy and brain cycles that can be better spent on other endeavors. While I do have plans for the future, never want to retire, and my fondest wish is to drop dead at my desk at work, I will accept when it's my time to go. I will probably be disappointed in some ways since there are some things I want to do in life, but that's just human.
And since it seems to be obligatory these days, FUCK the BETA, it really is bad.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
E-cigarettes gives you the fast, abundant and finely controlled nicotine intake, with the experience of breathing hot air and satisfying the "nipple sucking" primordial reflex.
They really give everything a cigarette user needs, and are cheap, especially in countries with high taxes on tobacco.. while like 95% of the toxicity just goes away. No more tars and whatever crap.
So, don't hesitate.. Do it immediately!
It's even something of a Star Trek thing. Star Trek had that fake alcohol which makes you drunk without poisoning you : no hangovers (intoxication), passing out (overdose), headache. (crap alcohol does this. Note that by drinking good or decent beer and red wine I can get high alcohol intake without headaches and with less brain damage, but I don't kid myself, it's most probably still harmful)
I AINT NO NIGGA FAG YOU HO ASS BITCH. IM WHITE SO GO PINK SOCK YER MOM. BITCH. HO.
sHIT. NIGGA DONT EVEN HAVE A NAME EXCETP FAGGITY ASS 'ANNONIMUS COUWARD.' PUSSY.
NIGGAS BE FRONTIN WHEN THIS WHITE SHIZNIT MOVES INTO THEIR BASS NOTES.
YO WE GONNA TALK ABOUT TECH SHIT OR WHAT? YOU BITCHES DOWN WITH ALPINE? MTX 12S OK OR KICKERS? CAN YOU GET GOOD SPEAKS AT THE BABYMOMMA MART? (THE PLACE WITH THE PREGGO BLACK BABES LATE AT NIGHT..THEY PUT OUT FOR THE RIGHT SHIT BRAAZZZZ)
Why are the white niggas always the loudest fags?
iGNORE THE CHILD M0LESTING FaTHER FUCKING D1CE LoVING MeXI-ARAB GYPSY FaG OP.
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet. (Copy-paste the html from here so links don't get mangled!)
On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design. Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.
If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this in a new tab. After seeing that, click here to return to classic Slashdot.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss Beta
http://slashdot.org/recent - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
-----=====##### LINKS #####=====-----
Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=56395415
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3321441
Alternative Slashdot: http://altslashdot.org (thanks Okian Warrior (537106))
Logic is a path to follow in order to reach a predefined purpose.
Smoking can't be illogical per se. Facts cannot be illogical and indeed, people do smoke.
Now, here, in declaring that smoking is illogical, the contemporary capitalistic dominant value system is implied, defining as purpose the 'long live (and be productive...)' doctrine. But if somebody takes pleasure in smoking and the purpose he has define for his life is to dive in pleasures, then smoking is perfectly logical. The possibility of cancer is the price he accepts to pay in order to maintain his values and purposes.
That being said, people who impose their smoke on others are antisocial moronic douchebags.
That's something Spock would say to Uhura. You know, "singing is illogical", "fun is illogical", "kissing is illogical", "sex is illogical". Many things we humans like to do are "illogical", but we generally do them anyway, often because they are enjoyable, and sometimes because a lot of illogical risk taking propels humanity along as a whole.
There are many things that shorten you life, and at age 82, Nimoy really can't complain about his life span. I think a better reason to quit smoking isn't necessarily health, it's that it's a dirty and smelly habit that gets in the way of other fun-but-illogical activities, like kissing.
I think implied in Nimoy's statement is the goal of "live long and prosper" as the primary purpose in life, and from that point of view, smoking is illogical. If you adopt the "have fun and don't worry" purpose, smoking is not illogical.
You people can't make up your minds, can you? At times you condemn the "contemporary capitalistic dominant value system" as hedonistic, materialistic, and consumption oriented; and now you condemn it for causing people to be long-term focused health nuts.
FWIW, in my experience with both systems, capitalism wants you to have fun, while socialism and communism try to force you to be productive in various ways and prevent you from enjoying illogical things. Both, however, prefer you drop dead right after retirement.
Leonard Nimoy is probably one of the most influental actors the last century. He may not have intended to be, but that's how things are - you can't control every aspect of your life - accept what you have become. As a person that have a rather iconic status he can reach more people than many others. He has at least not abused his position in life given by his characterization of Spock, which means that people will listen when he do say something.
The sad thing here is that the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a very slow and agonizing thing to experience - you know that you eventually will die from it. Cancer is another high risk for smokers. Of course people can die from lung cancer or COPD anyway - but smoking increases the risk considerably. Be it passive smoking or active - it increases the risk.
I'd rather die quickly than have a slow agonizing death.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
It has been at least suspected that smoking caused cancer for about one hundred years, now.
It has been widely known, including the Surgeons General warning, for at least fifty years.
I am long past the point of having any concern for people who can't kick the smoking habit or are ill from it (other than simple human sympathy for anyone suffering, of course). Unless you are at least 70 years old, today, there is no excuse for you to have any real smoking problems. You know it is going to kill you, today. You knew it would kill you, when you started. We are almost to the point where anyone with even the slightest "well, I didn't know back then" excuse for smoking is dead.
Anyway, this is sad news. I know that Nimoy is in his 80s. I know he has lived a full life. However, I have been dreading his passing. As many people my age likely have, I've a mental list of older guys whose passing I'm sure to be alive for and who are going to really gut me. He's one of the guys on that list.
I agree
" But as TFA shows the sad thing is you WILL get COPD, doesn't matter how long ago you quit as you WILL get it if something else don't get you first. So if you are quitting do it because you don't want to be smelling like smoke or be out of breath, because if you have smoked more than a couple of years you might as well accept COPD is in your future regardless."
Negative thinking is a large part of what causes the addiction to be so difficult to break. Beat me it feels good syndrome. IT IS NOT true that you are doomed even if you quit. Also the only attitude to take is that you will be tempted for the rest of your life to smoke. The difference is that you need to make a habit out of not smoking. Don't get all sweated up there is no doubt that in the first week after quitting it will be difficult, such is the nature of the drug. Another misconception about tobacco is the fact that it calms your nerves. THE BULLSHIT fact is that it is essentially a speed ball concoction, at first the carbon monoxide brings you down as does the reduction of 02 in your blood stream. Yes it calms your nerves and the nicotine acts initially as a sedative as well, but the fact is that then after about 4 minutes it actually increases your heart rate and in reality nicotine is a form of speed as well. Most people are not aware of these facts and think that they are actually settling their nerves by havin' a butt. BUT IT IS A LIE, and you fool yourself into believing the soothing tones of the Marlboro Man lighting up on horseback.
Remember dada, dada dada, --dada, dada dada. As Yule Brynner rides off into the sunset. The tobacco companies up in Canada actually own part of one of the largest drug store chains, they did not suffer, but their victims do every day.
DON'T GIVE UP THE FIGHT and roll over and play dead, it can be beaten. Besides the more you try to quit the more you will learn how not to smoke and also reduce the insult to your body. But don't be negative to others about quitting it is just plain wrong and I am sure Mr. Spock and even the Marlboro man would agree.
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
Your 'can't make up your minds' statement makes it appear as if the "contemporary capitalistic dominant value system" can't be at the same time hedonistic, materialistic, and consumption oriented AND making people 'long-term focused health nuts'. At the very least, obsessing with your health makes you buy a shitload of diet complements and fantasize that all the problems caused to your body by stress will be relieved, leaving you free to enjoy life. I'm not the one to be held accountable for the inherent capitalism contradictions.
As I'm not a communist either, I will sure agree that it forces you to be productive, but it would be missing the elephant in the room if you denied that also capitalism forces you to be productive. Although the nature of 'forcing' changes a little: In the one case you are forced with real force, where in the other case you are pointed to the cheese in the mousetrap, which is the wealth that one person out of 1000 achieves through capitalism.
I was a smoker of 10 years before I quit in September 2011. To anyone who'd like to know how, I stopped cold turkey one day and didn't look back - plan was to stop so my wife and I could have a baby in a few years (which happens to be this year btw :) ). One very helpful part of the process was avoiding everything that I associated with smoking. So, for about three months I stopped having coffee with mates, taking breaks at work (instead of which ordered lunch in), meeting clients outside office premises and other habits conducive to smoking. And, most importantly, I regularly took a multivitamin and kept a mild antibiotic at hand for the occasional flu.
What about Europeans and people from other parts of the world where tobacco products can't be marketed, cigarettes and nicotine products have to be hidden from view? People still smoke, people still start smoking. No marketing happening to them though. All the current evidence suggests that hiding tobacco products and banning smoking in certain places is not stopping people smoke nor reducing the number of new smokers.
Besides, what ever happened to people doing what they enjoy? Some smokers do feel trapped sadly, but not all. Many do it because they enjoy it.
Uhhh...you didn't actually READ my post before you ran full speed to that soapbox, did you? Gotta give you credit it WAS an epic rant. Except...I quit 3 months ago, so all the "Don't give up!" crap? Kinda pointless.
And its not being "negative" to face reality, unless you consider somebody with 2 broken legs as being "negative" when they point out they can't walk. anybody who tells you that your body "will magically heal itself" after years of abuse? Blowing smoke up the wrong end, and I don't care WHAT you were abusing, be it drugs or booze or smokes. the body is capable of fixing a lot of things but its not invulnerable and its been proven repeatedly that as little as 3 years of smoking is enough to do permanent damage that all the "you can do it!" lectures in the world won't fix.
Still props on an epic rant, I'll be sure to blow some smoke rings with this ecig in your honor. Oh and yes I know I've just switched from one to the other but without my nicotine I'm a right bastard and would rather not throw away my current relationship, thanks.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I'm here to read relevant comments.
I'd like to be able to read relevant comments in the future too, that's why I mod the FB posts up.
The problem with smoking is it doesn't just shorten your life, it can make your life miserable.
Imagine how horrific it is to be SICK all the time, gasping for breath, always wondering if tomorrow will be your last and almost hoping so because living with a with pain, sickness and a struggle for breath is just so awful.
Smoking not only causes you to die, it causes you to die horribly in a lot of cases.
--PM
There is no "contradiction". Liberty means you have the freedom to make poor choices, and the wealth created by capitalism means you can indulge in those poor choices. But the poor choices you make are yours, nobody else's. Capitalism and advertising don't force you to make poor choices.
In fact, if you really "obsess with your health", you don't buy any of that crap, you buy the cheap and healthy foods that cost less than ever before, and you save tons of money too.
Capitalism doesn't force you to do anything. You can work half time on some low-end job and still live better than most of the rest of the world, or the way most people did a century ago. The reason you feel "forced" is because of greed, gluttony, and envy.
That's not being "forced", that is simply you giving in to your greed. Greed, envy, gluttony, and all those other vices were recognized human failings long before capitalism even existed. Again, if you give in to your vices and bad impulses, capitalism will carry you all the way to hell in a comfortable Lexus. Under less capable economic systems, you'd simply not have the option of indulging your vices, but that's hardly preferable.
I can't wait until the beta goes official and all you asshats storm off in a tizzy. Good riddance.
More people try and get addicted and fail to kick tobacco than any other drug known. It is personal, most of family slowly dying and suffering to this evil. I struggle in this question of freedom and free will and the "needle" and the damage done. I am remind for that Hoyt Axton song, delivered such passion by Steppenwolf:
"If I was President of the land,
I declare total war on the Pusher man,
I'd stab him if he stands,
I'd shoot him if he runs,
I'd kill them with my Bible, my razor, and my gun!"
"GAWD DAMN, THE PUSHER"
Yeah I just tried beta a second time to give it a second chance and there is still way to much white space on here to make this pleasant. Also what looks like a tile bar near the top is giving me Windows 8 fidgets and I'm not enjoying this experience. Would someone please reformat the beta site and reinstall regular /. and just fix it so that it doesn't auto-mod everything on the fly but lets you have some sort of conformation when moderating? That's all I think that really needed fixed.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Why do my comments disappear after I hit submit for them? I scroll down and can't find them. I finally did several more comment loads and found what I posted. At least with the original site I saw my post appear in the comment section.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
If this is the average quality of future stories, I don't need a beta to keep me away.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Looks like some moderators are participating in the protests by modding on topic comments "offtopic".
As to quitting smoking, it depends on your genes and when you quit. My mother and her husband quit 30 years ago when he developed emphysema, he died from pretty much all his organs shutting down last year, Mom's only now starting to get COPD at age 85, but all but three of her twelve siblings are alive and in their nineties.
Generally, though, they say if you quit before you're 40, by the time you're 50 your lungs will be as healthy as a 50 year old who never smoked. And the more you smoke, the more damage there is to the lungs.
If I get COPD it will probably be from reefer, all smoke is bad for your lungs. But at least pot doesn't cause cancer.
Free Martian Whores!
Everyone thinks of lung cancer and COPD/Emphysema. I work as an anesthesiologist and I can tell you one of the biggest problems smokers get is disease of the arteries. They get heart attacks because of blocked coronary arteries. They get strokes because of blocked carotid arteries. They get peripheral vascular disease (PVD) which means legs that become painful when walking due to lack of oxygenated blood. Combine smoking with diabetes and you are guaranteed to have vascular problems in life! So don't imagine coughing up blood and dying of lung cancer, don't imagine COPD and needing oxygen to slowly walk 100 feet. Think of blocked arteries to the brain and strokes, think of blocked arteries to the feet and gangrenous toes, think of blocked coronary arteries and getting your chest sawed open to bypass them. Think of blocked arteries to the penis and (Sorry I can't even bear to think of this!) Smoking is bad mm'kay
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Whereas you technically are right, you underestimate the force of the social paradigm. Of course, you are 'free' to act otherwise, but then if that was practiced by the majority, capitalism would collapse. Because it is an economic system which capitalizes on the vices you mentioned.
Smoking is also one of the top causes of impotence in men.People are so focused on cancer that they forget all of the other problems smoking causes.
Over the long term, it's 100% certain that smoking will reduce your quality of life in some way: cancers: lung, throat, mouth, etc ..., impotence, reduced cognitive function, emphysema, clubbed fingers, and on and on and on ...
It says right there in the first sentence that he stopped smoking 30 years ago. I guess some people got swept away by their righteous smugness.
But as TFA shows the sad thing is you WILL get COPD, doesn't matter how long ago you quit as you WILL get it if something else don't get you first. So if you are quitting do it because you don't want to be smelling like smoke or be out of breath, because if you have smoked more than a couple of years you might as well accept COPD is in your future regardless.
I don't know about that.. I smoked in my early 20s, during the 8 years I was in the Army, and for about 2 years after I got out, for a total of about 10 years. One day, I reached into my shirt pocket, by habit, to grab a cigarette, and I had an epiphany.. I asked myself.. "WTF are you doing to yourself???" I wadded the nearly full pack up and threw it away.. All of my friends smoked heavily and when I told them "I QUIT!", they laughed and said "nah, you'll be back..." .. Well, here I am, 40+ years later, and I've not had another cigarette since... Thanks to the "cold turkey". In fact, the smell of burning tabacco so revolts me, I get sick to my stomach when I have to negotiate the flocks of smokers puffing away outside many stores/coffee shops today.. In my last physical, last year, nothing about any COPD or emphysyma or .. (shudder) cancer... Guess I'm the exception...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
But as TFA shows the sad thing is you WILL get COPD, doesn't matter how long ago you quit as you WILL get it if something else don't get you first. So if you are quitting do it because you don't want to be smelling like smoke or be out of breath, because if you have smoked more than a couple of years you might as well accept COPD is in your future regardless.
Yes, COPD is a serious disorder, but my concern with labeling it as inevitable (or worse, labeling it "terminal") is that it isn't universally true and it may cause people to avoid treatments or courses of action that might help their quality/quantity of life.
For anyone reading this at risk for COPD, read this. Lung function decline varies widely in COPD, and in many cases COPD may not progress at all. However, left untreated (or worse, if people believe that it doesn't matter if they continue to smoke once diagnosed) then the outcomes will be worse.
People can live for decades with high quality of life after a COPD diagnosis. Yes, COPD can be terminal, but it is much more likely to be so if you give up.
If someone is a former smoker, consider this to be encouragement to exercise *now* to improve your cardiovascular health. Even if you do develop COPD in the future, you will have built up a reserve of better than average lung function. Also, note that high BMI (obesity) is the strongest predictor of rapid lung function decline in COPD, so... draw the obvious conclusion.
The 1997 layout didn't even have threaded commenting.
Hairy, admit to yourself that you have not quit consuming nicotine. If anything you have moved on to the pure drug. Hardly a progressive step.
Your positive future involves the word QUIT. Your negative future involves that river in Egypt.
Someone tries to support you, you call it a rant, and totally miss what they are saying. Epic indeed.
I come here for the love
If you want to save your lungs, you should try a vaporizer instead of reefers - more efficient use of material and virtually no particulate matter to cause damage. Takes a bit of getting used to, though as the hit is quite different.
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
I quit drinking, started smoking - five years ago. I'm 32 now - I don't know anyone who had started smoking so late, as in not one cigarette before.
You gotta manage your vices and people should have the freedom to so. I'll stop smoking when/if I get married. your friend started smoking at 12 and THAT'S PRETTY FUCKED UP.
And if I drank, my body would get totally fucked up and I'd be lucky to survive to 40 as a wreck.
and you want to know who benefits most from the strict tobacco advertisement rules? fucking big tobacco of course. you can't even show the packs in the shops anymore so you cannot ask for some new brand, people just buy the brand they bought last week or what someone they know smoked. so the established tobacco brands are really the big winners, since there can not be a new camel or marlboro anymore since you can't tell people that hey I'm producing this new tobacco brand.
Furthermore, nobody would smoke just to look cool, I mean fucking nobody would do that for longer than one night. it's the nicotine and co2 man - it works, it's just not marketing bullshit. maybe leonard would have spat on shatners face many times if he hadn't smoked.
but why smoke tobacco? it makes easier to get on with life. better than popping pills too.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
"Exceptionally serious health effects" are irrelevant to the question of enjoyment. Many people enjoy high-risk activities for a variety of reasons.
Your blanket statement about drug addictions is a dramatic oversimplification. For example, millions of caffeine addicts can't be accurately characterized as "suffering... only to feel relief when they are high".
It's safe to say that at least some people who are addicted to nicotine may (gasp!) actually enjoy the effects of the substance they're addicted to.
I smoke whenever I feel like it, which usually adds up to me smoking a few cigarettes twice per week, usually during breaks at university. I don't smoke while studying and I don't generally smoke while out, except when I go to the pub.
Smoking is enjoyable and fun, if done in moderation. See, the thing is, like any other drug, moderation is the key to avoid medical complications.
I love the beta, it lets me hide all of your whining, bitchy comments about beta.
Switching to an ecig is not quitting. That's like saying you've kicked your oxycontin habit by going to heroin. What you've done is kicked it up a notch.
I am not advocating to smoke here and have never smoked myself (well only puffed in Jr high school because I thought it made me look cool), but my folks smoked all their lives. The mother died at 77 (as best as we could calculate - she wouldn't reveal her age). This was rather old for her family. The doctor said that her lungs were about the size of grapefruits from having smoked so long. The father died at 89, his family was long lived. There were three things that they continuously did that I am sure added many years to their lives and kept them disease free.
1. We made and ate chocolate fudge almost every week.
2. They drank several cups of coffee during the day.
3. They would sit down and have a high ball everyday at 5 pm. It usually consisted of a large jigger of tequila, scotch, or whiskey.
If you can't stop smoking, have at it.
This isn't a direct quote from Nimoy. It's insulting.
Anyone who has ever smoked knows the true grips of nicotine addiction.
Nimoy was a long time smoker. Don't wait to quit. Get help. Most states offer free cessation aids including gum and patches.
Off topic: /., please ban the beta spammers. I'm totally ok with you blocking entire IP blocks to accomplish this until things quiet down. Let the ignorant bandwagon jumpers whine about censorship. It's petty and wrong that the rest of us suffer.
In the beta appearing squeezed on my browser?
Can't your developers figure out how to crop an image and retain the aspect ratio?
Really!
you too will have lung disease! YIPPEE!
Really fucking BETA
Sorry, but that's complete bullshit. Capitalism (by which I mean free market economies with free movement of capital) is value neutral, it just efficiently supplies what people want, whether it's diet products, bloody movies, hookers, space travel, or a clean environment. Capitalism won't "collapse" if people all of a sudden reduce their consumption or start investing in socially more valuable pursuits. Capitalism is holding up a mirror to society, and you apparently don't like what you see.
Personally I think, not only are you wrongly blaming the engine for where the driver is taking the car, you also underestimate how vicious, intolerant, selfish, and greedy people used to be; our society has become much better over the last century. And the more free market a society has been, the more progress it has made on social and environmental issues.
I don't think you know what the word "we" means. *I* am NOT worried about Dice killing slashdot. I just don't care. There are a other websites. Quit whinging and get over it already.
This is true of for every human and for every possible cause of death. Something will get you, sooner or later. However, quitting smoking decreases the odds of it being "COPD" and "sooner".
Think of it this way: Slashdot is going to die one day. Does that mean it should simply go ahead and switch to Beta?
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
speaking of dilution, it'd be hard to dilute beta with its absurd amount of white space
FUCK SLASHDOT BETA
FUCK THE "WE HEARD YOU" BANNER - NO, YOU'RE NOT LISTENING
so he smoked into his 50s
he now has a disease common to people who smoke most of their lives
very likely his smoking caused his problem, it's a near certainty
Takeaway from that article - you may lucky if you are a Japanese ex-smoker non-progressor. I tell my patients that lung function declines with age regardless of smoking history, however the decline is faster in active smokers. (Yes I am a pulmonary/critical care doctor IRL)
Argh. The laws of science be a harsh mistress.
Let's imagine we are referring to someone addicted to ethanol.
This person proudly announces they have moved to pure ethanol gelcaps.
Need I continue?
I come here for the love
I always wondered why Spock and his fellow Vulcans never said "rational" occasionally instead of abusing "logical".
Why don't you offer feeback on the changes? I did, and next thing I see is those exact issues being acknowledged. Now that there is a proper news article to comment on, I do not see how disrupting unrelated articles is in any way useful. Quite the contrary.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
... live longer and prosper.
licet differant, aequabitur
First of all bitching about beta is like bitching about moderation or karma-whoring. This would not be /. without those things it would be... well some other bullshit... Also I think there's enough feedback, although there's been plenty of feedback and it's overwhelmingly of the fuckbeta, or perhaps the "gee beta is more like pre-pre-alpha 'cause the things that make /. /. are horribly broken, although the overall visual look is just nifty, or sucks or whatever as long as it's green and white it's all good to me.
The drama is most people who give up with an "aid" fall back to smoking within the first six months.
You definitely get a benefit from switching from cigarettes to ecigs, but you're not quit, and if you did quit it would be just as bad as from cigarettes. I've seen similar reports of people that had their doctors tell them they should consider their nicotine replacement therapy life-long medication.
I didn't use any aids this attempt purely on the basis that I've found they're replacement and have no effect on the eventual cessation at the end of their use, so I got that hellscape out of the way immediately instead of in a few months time.
I wasn't nearly as cranky as I thought I would be, I'm usually crankier on the aids... and 12 months in I don't feel like a smoker any more, albeit I still occasionally want one, but it's mostly when the topic is discussed like now ;)
If it helps at all.. what I found was that the craving for nicotine had replaced all other cravings, so when I was tired I'd think I wanted a smoke, and when I was really tired I'd chain smoke. I think most smokers would resemble that remark... the food/drink triggers are more subtle, but the "it's late, I really need a smoke, so I guess I'll go to the store at 2am" shit is really obvious.
like to donate a lung to Leonard Nimoy? I'm sure the fanboys will start to fight over whose lungs he gets
I don't become "cranky" I become the most cold blooded vicious son of a bitch you ever met, more than happy to tell you why your very existence is a waste and the world would be better of without you in it...what do you think happened to my last long term relationship? She begged and begged me to quit..well she got her wish, she left in tears after just 3 weeks of attempting to be around me.
Thanks to nicotine my senses stay a little dulled and that is a good thing, trust me. Even my own mother, who has COPD and begged me to quit when she did? Left a carton of smokes on my doorstep after being around me for 2 weeks without. Some people get cranky, you get cranky, I become bloodthirsy, vindictive, and will happily tear you a new asshole, BIG difference.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
If I get COPD it will probably be from reefer, all smoke is bad for your lungs. But at least pot doesn't cause cancer.
Keep telling yourself that. The tobacco smokers used to think that too until there was enough research to prove otherwise. The same will be true for pot.
Fair enough, NRT sounds a better long term strategy then.
I only discovered I was capable of quitting because the government started to get stupid about the amount of tax they wanted to punish 15-20% of the community with since it's a nice elastic market and they could pretend it was a health initiative.
As an aside; however, they've finally managed to find the elastic point for a lot of people, either quitting or buying chop-chop. They upped the tax 25% in 2010 and got a 19% increase in revenues, then put it up again and got a 19% reduction in revenues. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that wasn't 30% of the smokers quitting...
Cigarettes are, in this country at least, taxed all to hell and back. So I said fuck you, government, you aren't attacking middle eastern shitholes with my tax money. That, and Zyban, were enough to get me through.
Been years without cigarettes now. And at no point did I feel wonderful beyond belief, but I accept that my health is much better now and I KNOW that shit would have killed me.
They attacked the middle east anyway, but I no longer smoke. Your motivation may vary.
> I get sick to my stomach when I have to negotiate the flocks of smokers puffing away outside
The name for that it is "gastritis". Nicotine is stomach acid inducer.
(my) Life is overrated, therefor I smoke
You sir have just changed my life. Such passion and deep words, the imagery was just phenomenal. I don't know if anyone could match the persuasion skills that you have. No more cigs for me
Posting anon because I've blown 4 mod points on this story (so far). I'm NoImNotNineVolt, and I'm not hiding behind anonymity.
I modded up all the "fuck beta" posts at the top (underrated) to counter some of the flamebait mods. I don't believe taking an active role in discussing the preservation of the slashdot community is flamebait. I also modded the opposing posts down (offtopic) because I believe they're not adding anything of value to the conversation. These posts truly were offtopic, in that they didn't have anything to do with the story and they didn't really add anything meaningful to the discussion about the changes slashdot is going through right now.
Regardless of how you or I feel, the beta that is being pushed on us may very well be indicative of the general direction Dice is pushing slashdot in. I think slashdot is a valid place to have a discussion regarding whether or not Dice and the community see eye to eye on this. I think that this discussion is both more important than and relevant to any given story that may find its way to the front page. I believe that this is a discussion that ought to be had, regardless of how Dice decides to proceed, regardless of what the final outcome is.
To those of you that don't care to see this discussion unfold, I apologize. It should be over in a week or so, so don't worry. You'll have your exclusively story-focused commentary back shortly. I understand that it's a mildly annoying inconvenience to have to sit through this shit. Get some perspective, though. It's not like your family just got hauled off to a concentration camp. It's just one of your favorite glorified weblogs suffering from a temporary drop in SNR.
To those of you fighting to keep the discussion above -1, let's keep at it.
For my "on-topic" comment, I'd just like to say that smoking cigarettes is terrible. I've been smoking for roughly half of my life. The stupidest thing I ever did was start back up after quitting for 2 years. Last year I managed to stop for two months. This year I plan on trying again, hopefully with greater success.
Also, fuck beta.
A highlight of the Paramount tour was to pass by the Star Trek stages (not that you would ever see them). We happened to pass by during a film break. And many of our favorite actors were puffing away just outside.
Sarek was already a mature adult when he became first Federation Ambassador in the 22nd century. And he died two centuries later in the 24th century in a Next Generation episode.
Hopefully Spocks human genes dotn shorted his life too much.
Leonard Nimoy's statement makes no sense. He quit smoking thirty years ago, not soon enough in his estimation and it did no good - that is, if smoking caused his current lung dysfunction. The anti-tobacco bandwagon is based on irrational hatred of smokers and smoking, and it is pc to climb on board. Don't insurance companies lower rates for those who quit smoking? I would wonder why they would do that, particularly when there are people who quit after decades of smoking - as if quitting cancels out damage that could be solely attributed to smoking. And then there are the people who smoke for 60+ years while sadly watching their non-smoking friends die.
I did, in topics about beta, and I emailed them. I'd be fine with beta if I could ignore it, but the problem is they're running full speed ahead with getting rid of classic.
Just tried to get to the altslashdot site, got a 404.
Free Martian Whores!
As we said a few days ago, we're slowing down the rollout. And we aren't "getting rid of" the classic site any time soon.
I always thought that the reason pot doesn't cause cancer was because of the quantity of smoke. While a tobacco user smoking 2 packs per day isn't unusual, not many people smoke 40 joints each day.
Thank you for that. I'm hopeful you guys will fix it.
Free Martian Whores!
I would if I knew where to get hash oil. My friend's son had one, I quite liked it but he has trouble getting oil, and he's in the St Louis area, Springfield's only 110k people.
And there's the legal angle, here in town it's like a traffic ticket, not even a misdemeanor for small amounts. They're a lot harder on hash.
Free Martian Whores!
The sky is blue. More at 5 o' clock from your local news leader.
Fuck Beta
Beta is like aids; you get it by being beta-fucked. Therefore being beta-fucked is illogical.
Off topic!?! That is highly illogical. The reply was posted under an Off Topic thread. Therefore, an off topic reply to an off topic post would be on topic.
A decent vaporizer can handle hash or grass. I recommend the Arizer Solo - it's not cheap, but pays for itself over time through more efficient usage (and no tobacco if that's how you make reefers).
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
gosgog:
One of you yoyo's made the statement Smoking has pluses & minuses. So what are the Pluses??? I smoked back when, as much as three packs a day, tried Pipes, loved cigars & quit cold one day....never looked back! In retrospect I cannot think of ANY PLUSES! Just a total waste of Money & BAD for your health. Some booze is actually good for you! All the rest including funny cigarettes, cokaine, heroin, lsd etc, etc. are merely garbage escapisms. So ya gotta problem, use the substance...got news for you dumbass...the problem is still there next day!!
Gonna be 81 this month, planning on making it into the 90's and enjoyed most every minute so far! An the lady's 40 years younger too. No, I'm not rich either!
Thanks, I'll try that. As to tobacco, I never did like blunts.
Free Martian Whores!