In 1946 There Were 7,250 Female MD's

JAMES HAMBLIN

Time has this interesting gallery of vintage cigarette ads. "Try Camels on your T-zone," this one suggests. Okay, that sounds fun. But first, what do you mean? 

T-zone: "That's T for taste and T for throat." 

You also get full credit if you guessed tumor. If you're considering taking up smoking, talk to a physician first. I don't know a lot of doctors who smoke nowadays, but of the ones that do, almost all of them swear by Camel brand cigarettes. Their rich, nutty flavor and nuanced, sophisticated aroma speak for themselves. And yes, they all smoke 'em directly through their T-zones. 

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They Get Their Claws Into You

Everyone’s talking all the time about the new ultra-graphic cigarette warning labels coming out in September and how they may or may not actually deter people from smoking but will definitely not deter people from having goatees. Meanwhile, in Italy:

"Smoking is for people who couldn't get the duck. Don't be a loser."

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The Internet Might Restructure Your Brain

Everything changes your brain all the time, the question is really just how much. Internet addiction? Scientific American describes two studies that suggest it might be a lot. 

They talk about differences in white matter density in a few areas that might lead to "reduced inhibition of inappropriate behavior and diminished goal orientation," among other things. But then the last page says the studies had fewer than 20 subjects, so, really they don't mean much. Cool story, right.

If the internet doesn't change the structure of your brain, though, I'd be amazed. Beyond amazed. It would keep my attention for at least a few seconds. But is being manic on the internet possibly worse for your brain than letting it sit around while you watch TV or go fishing? Just letting it be all alone in there, pulsating, wandering around, scuffing it's feet on the base of your skull. That's what sleep is for, right? "I just caught a fish, but not the real kind." I don't know, what? I had to buy concealer because I looked in the mirror this morning and new parts of my brain were showing through the skin in my forehead.

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Someone Spilled Some Knowledge On You

 

Carl Zimmer's forthcoming Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed tells true stories of science tattoos. Because it's neat when responsible people get reasonable tattoos.

Reason aside, as many of you know I'm seriously interested in getting sleeved. But I'm also looking for a design that would be acceptable for work. Would you be okay with your doctor having a tattoo sleeve? If it was something scientific, say, that I could use to help educate patients -- a pictorial of fetal development throughout gestation, maybe, or depictions of people with different kinds of tumors in the act of the lifestyle choices that caused them -- then yes, it could be okay, right? 

My other idea is just to get the actual cool tattoos I want (extremely NSFW), but then cover them when I'm wearing scrubs, say with a Dri-Fit shooting sleeve like Allen Iverson or something.

If people ask why I'm wearing it, I can always say it's because I'm about to make it rain.
I say that a lot already anyway.

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Everyone's Quitting Facebook

More news to support my sad theory that Facebook is in its "bloated purple dead-on-a-toilet phase": 100,000 British people quit Facebook last month. Even I'm shocked by that number, though. 100,000? What are they all doing with themselves?

Your first inclination is to think, ah, that's great, they're probably getting out into the world, living life instead of clicking through somebody else's. But with society having grown so social media-centric, quitting Facebook can seriously hurt their chances of finding a boyfriend or girlfriend, leaving them depressed and emaciated. Also if they go out and climb a tree, they'll probably just fall because their arms are so weak from technology. This Facebook exodus could be the most ill-fated British surrender since the Siege of Yorktown. There, I said it.

What would it take to get you to quit Facebook? I think this question has already been asked on lots of sites, but let's pretend I just thought of it for the first time. For me, I'd quit if it meant saving the life of a single anonymous child somewhere in the world. Anywhere, even someplace I don't like. Would you? What if you couldn't even use someone else's account to brag about it?

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There's A Draft

If this were your house, would you still lead a normal life? With a dentist and clothes and feelings? Or would you just bounce around all day, and all night, and all day, until the end.


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