Noah Brier dot Com

The story of Fabrice Muamba from yesterday is hard to imagine. A professional football (the English kind) player had a heart attack during the game. The facts themselves are pretty crazy, but this article does a great job giving the broader context to what happened around the story:

Many said yesterday evening that football becomes irrelevant in such circumstances. This is partially true, but doesn’t tell the complete story of last night. When something such as this happens, the match that is taking place ceases to be of much importance, of course. The game, however, to the extent that “football” exists as an entity in and of itself, certainly doesn’t become irrelevant, and this much was demonstrated by the messages of support and concern that we saw last night. Football frequently seems to exist in a bubble, isolated and insulated from the outside world. When the full horror that real world can occasionally offer came calling last night, though, its humanity shone through. Considering what happened at White Hart Lane last night, it’s a tiny consolation. But a tiny consolation is better than no consolation at all.

Fabrice Muamba | Twohundredpercent

cultureeplHealthheart attacksoccersportsMarch 18, 2012

Australia is banning all “industry logos, brand imagery, colours and promotional text” on cigarette packaging. Each pack will feature “pictures of diseased body parts, sickly babies and dying people” instead. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the landscape. Will people stop smoking fancy brands because you don’t get any of the brand ruboff when you pull out a pack? Will the cigarette companies just brand the cigarette itself way more?

[Via Nick Parish]

Cigarette plain packaging laws pass Parliament - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

australiabrandingcigarettesHealthmarketingNovember 21, 2011

Congress is fighting back on school lunch nutrition guidelines: “The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.” To some extent I understand the worries about government dictating personal choice, but we’re talking about public schools. Is it any wonder that obesity is a problem if we’re teaching kids that pizza is a vegetable?

The Associated Press: Congress pushes back on healthier school lunches

educationfoodHealthnutritionpoliticsNovember 17, 2011

Your chances of dying in a hospital are much higher than in a plane crash. This is hardly shocking, but speaks to two interesting issues: first, the problem could be solved if evveryone always kept their hands clean at a hospital, which seems simple but is far from it. I remember when I was doing work with GE hearing about simple things like lab coats and just how much contamination they carry. Second, it speaks to our total inability to properly calculate risk.

Going into hospital far riskier than flying: WHO | Reuters

behavioraleconomicsHealthhospitalsOctober 30, 2011