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<DIV>In a message dated 3/3/2005 8:08:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
joe@quirk.net writes:</DIV>
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<P>Mark:</P>
<P>This is amazing! And hilarious, when it gets to the bit about
writers. I'm going to send this to my friend Howard Blooom, because it
fits in with his theory. An average of almost 4 years of life added to
life expectancy awarded to winners among 762 individuals I'd say is
statistically significant. Of course we run into that same old
correlation-is-not-causation problem: How do we know people who are
naturally "vivacious" aren't more likely to win Oscars and live longer?
Maybe vivacious people tend to exercise more, live longer, and win more
Oscars. </P>
<P>Judith Rich Harris, who wrote "The Nurture Assumption", talks about this in
terms of broccoli. She says an article will come out: "Broccoli
eaters live 7 years longer!" So reader assumes: "Broccoli can
extend my life." She points out that this is faulty logic. Maybe
people who eat broccoli also tend to be people who jog and don't smoke, and
broccoli has nothing to do with extending life. She says that when these
kind of correlations confirm existing biases, they are published as if they
prove something. But when a correleation is demonstrated that
contradicts existing biases, like, say, "Prayed for outlive other cancer
patients" or "Adopted kids more violent if biological parent was violent,"
then we all say, "Well, that doesn't mean... "</P>
<P>Still, a great little study report. Thanks for sending it.</P>
<P>The question is, if I stop writing now, will it extend my life?</P>
<P>See what I mean?</P>
<P>Joe<BR><BR>----- Original Message -----<BR>From: "Mark L."
<emdls@pacbell.net><BR>To: joe@quirk.net<BR>Subject: Tortured Souls
& Eunuchs at Orgies...<BR>Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 17:17:57 -0800<BR><BR></P>
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<DIV>I read the following article... and nearly pee'd myself laughing at the
middle when I got to the part about the cruel but predictably cosmically
ironic fate of Oscar winning writers. You know, I would never want to be
an Oscar winning actor - I value my sanity, privacy and introversion too
much... but it thought it might be nice to win an Oscar in writing...
till I read below...;)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>-mark.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>______________</DIV>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/02/26/inter<SPAN></SPAN>national/i174807S72.DTL&type=printable<FONT
size=-1> www.sfgate.com </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><A
title=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/02/26/international/i174807S72.DTL
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/02/26/international/i174807S72.DTL"><B><SPAN></SPAN>Study:
Oscar Winners Outlive Other Actors</B></A><B><BR></B><FONT size=-2>- By ROB
GILLIES, Associated Press Writer<BR>Saturday, February 26,
2005</FONT><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>(02-26) 17:48 PST TORONTO, Canada (AP) --<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>A Canadian professor of medicine argues that actors who win
Academy Awards on Sunday night won't only boost their chances of other
box-office hits, but will likely live longer than their fellow
nominees.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a professor at the University of Toronto,
says his research shows that Oscar winners live nearly four years longer
than other actors.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>And multiple winners, he says, live an average of six years
longer. Want proof? Katharine Hepburn, who won a record four acting prizes,
lived to the ripe old age of 96.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Redelmeier says the study proves that Oscar success has a
powerful influence on a person's health and longevity.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"Once you've got that statuette on your mantelplace, it's an
uncontested sign of peer approval that nobody can take away from you, so
that any subsequent harsh reviews, it leaves you more resilient," Redelmeier
said. "It doesn't quite get under your skin. The normal stresses and strains
of everyday life do not drag you down."<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>The study, funded by the Canadian Institute of Health and
Ontario Ministry of Health, included all 762 actors and actresses ever
nominated for an Academy Award in a leading or supporting role. For each
nominee, researchers also identified an actor of the same gender and roughly
the same age who appeared in the same film as the nominee.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>On average, award winners lived to the age of 79.7, while
non-winners lived to be 75.8.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"Once you win, you've got a reputation to live up to, even if
you weren't so inclined, you get surrounded by an entourage that's also
heavily invested in your reputation," said Redelmeier. "So you end up
sleeping properly every night, eating well, exercising regularly every
day."<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>An extra average of 3.9 years of life is significant, says
Redelmeier, adding that if all cancer patients in North America were cured,
life expectancy would grow by only 3.5 years.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>The ongoing study, which was initially published four years ago
in the Annals of Internal Medicine, also found that the effect of winning an
Academy award is about the same for men and women, comedies and dramas, and
leading and supporting role winners.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>The only Oscar winners that don't get the benefit of longevity
are screenwriters. In fact, the reverse is true. The tortured souls live on
average 3.6 years fewer than those who don't win.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"We find a survival gain for the actors, the directors but we
find a survival loss for the writers," said Redelmeier, who suggests that
writers aren't coddled and are prone to bad habits, such as smoking and
drinking. "Writers do not lead such exemplary lives. They don't have to eat
properly, sleep properly or exercise at all so, as a consequence of that
they don't receive any of the monitoring that other notable individuals
do."<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Redelmeier said he was inspired to study the movie industry
after watching the Oscars on television. He noticed the people on stage
looked nothing like his patients.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>"It's not just the wardrobe and the plastic surgery and makeup,
it's the way they walk and speak, they seem so much more vivacious, much
more than just skin deep," he said. "So I thought, this is really an amazing
way to look at social gradations at the upper echelons of
society."</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><BR>URL:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/02/26/internatio<SPAN></SPAN>nal/i174807S72.DTL</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10">----------<BR>Howard Bloom<BR>Author of The Lucifer Principle: A
Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History and Global Brain: The Evolution
of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st Century<BR>Visiting Scholar-Graduate
Psychology Department, New York University; Core Faculty Member, The Graduate
Institute<BR>www.howardbloom.net<BR>www.bigbangtango.net<BR>Founder:
International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic of Evolution
Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The Big Bang Tango
Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American Association for the
Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, Academy of Political
Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International Society for Human
Ethology; advisory board member: Youthactivism.org; executive editor -- New
Paradigm book series.<BR>For information on The International Paleopsychology
Project, see: www.paleopsych.org<BR>for two chapters from <BR>The Lucifer
Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, see
www.howardbloom.net/lucifer<BR>For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of
Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, see
www.howardbloom.net<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>