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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."

26 of 401 comments (clear)

  1. two spock quotes come to mind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    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'

    1. Re: two spock quotes come to mind by master5o1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      He is both Spock and not Spock at the same time?

      What is this, some sort of Schrödinger's Cat joke?

      --
      signature is pants
  2. Illogical by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Illogical by Mitreya · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're 82, Leonard. ... Refusing to accept death at 82 is illogical. Go with grace.

      Let's see if you feel the same way if and when you reach the age of 82.

    2. Re:Illogical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Refusing to accept that man wasn't meant to fly is illogical. Stay on the ground. How can the raging technophiles on Slashdot suddenly be such conservative anti-science luddites when it comes to lifespan? Yeah, all of a sudden you're all about limits. Why is that?

      Shouldn't the entire species also go with grace when it reaches its limits? You know, as opposed to the grand visions of the species colonizing the universe and being forever an ape that lasts a few decades before completely falling apart?

      No, no, that's different. Space is the Holy Manifest Destiny of the species, but only if we keep aging and dying like we did a thousand years ago. No technology must be developed to extend youth.

      Uncomfortable yet? Or only your pithy little statements are the truth??

    3. Re:Illogical by cold+fjord · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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 acknowledge what science teaches us about disease is illogical and yet you are holding yourself up as an arbiter of logic.

      Refusing to accept death at 82 is illogical.

      There is no logic to dying before necessary if he can still do productive work or enjoy life.

      Go with grace.

      What an interesting contract to your words in this post and this post. It is almost as if you don't really mean it. You seem to lack empathy. Isn't there a word for that?

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    4. Re:Illogical by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

      His problem is that 'grace' isn't really one of the features of COPD. First the coughing starts. Then you begin to experience difficulty breathing and shortness of breath. These become more severe until you can't maintain adequate O2 saturation without supplemental oxygen. Then they become more severe until you can't maintain adequate O2 saturation with supplemental oxygen. Then you die. Available treatments are largely aimed at easing the symptoms, and rarely effective in halting the disease's progression.

      It's hardly the worst (there's a lot of competition); but a long, futile, struggle to breath isn't a pretty exit. If he's really lucky, something else will kill him fast and first.

    5. Re:Illogical by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

      I want to die peacefully in my sleep - like my grandfather.

      Not screaming in terror, like the passengers in his car.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  3. For someone who said "live long" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  4. Re:Seriously - GTFO by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Funny

    Exactly! Why would Slashdot ever carry a story about Leonard Nimoy? Wasn't he in some westerns, like Gunsmoke and The Virginian? Anything else that we should know about? Did he ever travel? Any famous treks to relate that nerds would care about?

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  5. Re:Seriously - GTFO by cold+fjord · · Score: 4, Informative

    Better link for The Virginian. The doctor with him looks familiar too, good old DeForest Kelly, another old hand in the Westerns.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  6. Re:Seriously - GTFO by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think the well is drying up, because people are sick of beta or the arguments about beta, nobody is submitting any real stories.
    So they are left with these useless stories.

    The social oriented market segment that Dice is seemingly courting seems to be the only segment left.
    All the tech and nerd types have left the building.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  7. 82 years old by Kohath · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:82 years old by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Funny

      Smoking has pluses and minuses.

      Such as???

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    2. Re:82 years old by Kohath · · Score: 5, Interesting

      People have been smoking tobacco for about 1000 years now. Why do you think they started doing that? How far up your own ass would you have to be to deny even the possibility of a pleasant neurochemical effect?

      Here's a quote an article:

      This chemical enters the blood and after about seven seconds, it enters the brain, affecting exactly the same dopamine receptors, giving the brain the message that a rewarding activity has just been performed. Smokers report a feeling of calmness and mild euphoria when they have a puff of a cigarette.

    3. Re:82 years old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      PLUS: You die sooner, and so your exposure to Slashdot Beta is reduced.

    4. Re:82 years old by arkhan_jg · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The high goes away pretty quickly as your brain adapts, though nicotine remains a mild stimulant. After that, you mainly just get the relief of feeding the addiction - you go into withdrawal pretty quickly once you're addicted. In addition, it's psychologically addictive as you get used to the relief, and associate it with the physical act of smoking. Thus quitting is very hard, even with nicotine replacement therapy, and why most who try to quit fail, repeatedly. Nicotine is supposedly as hard to quit as heroin.

      Personally, I've switched to vaping from e-cigs. The same stress relief my brain associates with the physical act of smoking, a much lower dose of nicotine* (similar to caffeine in its effects) without all the tar, benzene and the many other carcinogens from combustion. Better to quit outright of course, but this is a workable half-way house for now, and much cheaper to boot.

      * I've scaled down the amount of nicotine in the liquid to much lower than I started with.

      --
      Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
  8. Yeah Yeah by Greyfox · · Score: 3, Funny

    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?

  9. Re:Seriously - GTFO by Deathlizard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Considering that he is sort of an icon to nerds and is dying of a recently announced disease, I would considering it newsworthy.

    Although I doubt that smoking is the main reason he has COPD now considering he stopped smoking so long ago, but it may have been a contributing factor. He was an avid Photographer, and if he did a lot of darkroom work, he could have contracted the disease from breathing in the Caustic Developer Chemicals.

  10. Re:Seriously - GTFO by 1s44c · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nimoy didn't get lung cancer, he got COPD.

    Smoking does heavily increase your chance of getting lung cancer but it's not the sole cause of it. Smoking does make you far more likely to suffer from one or more of a very large array of nasty illnesses during your lifetime. It also reduces your life span significantly.

    Quit smoking if you care at all about the risks of illness and disability that smoking causes. Or accept that you are a nicotine junkie and that you are lying to yourself about your habit because you can't face withdrawal.

  11. Re: Seriously - GTFO by sumdumass · · Score: 3

    Not true. I smoked for several years and quit for a little over a year and started smoking again. People like the smoke sensation entering their lungs, they like the relaxation afterwards and they like the way smoking steadies the hands and increases dexterity slightly. When I went back to smoking, I had absolutely no withdraw effects but I went back because I liked it. I only quit smoking (cold turkey) to get in a girls pants and she stuck around after I started back up despite being dead set against it when we first met.

    I still smoke today because I enjoy it. If you do not smoke, I guess you will never understand but you have it all wrong. Sure there is addiction, but there is also other positives about smoking that people like and enjoy much the same as people who like to drink alcohol or toke on some weed or even do other drugs occasionally. All that can be done without addiction and is often done because people enjoy it.

  12. Re:What do you expect? by anubi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not only will there be fewer stupid comments when these guru types leave... there will also be fewer of the gems these guys also leave. If I wanted social chitchat - I would go to facebook. Try asking a technical question over there.

    It will be a lot easier to destroy Slashdot than it was to build it. I just really hate to see it go. I just lost my other favorite site, TheOilDrum, not too long ago. Sure, there are other similar sites, but they are not the same. It was like having my favorite watering hole burn down.

    There is only one Slashdotter I know personally, the rest of you I only know by your presence here, yet in a way I feel I am among peers and friends here. You have been very generous to help me when I had problems, as well as give me sanity checks when I go overboard. I do not want to see this go away.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  13. Re:Beta is illogical by deviated_prevert · · Score: 5, Interesting

    " 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
  14. Re:Beta is illogical by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
  15. Re:Beta is illogical by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  16. Re:Beta is illogical by LVSlushdat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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..)