Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed

Mountain biker in Africa gets taken out by red hartebeest (read: antelope). Absolutely nuts. Makes SoCal snakes seem tame.

Take it full screen and HD. Gorgeous. / via Barry

New paper:

Presence of baseline prehypertension and risk of incident stroke: A meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Objective: To qualitatively and quantitatively assess the association of prehypertension with incident stroke through a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Methods: We searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and bibliographies of retrieved articles. Prospective cohort studies were included if they reported multivariate-adjusted relative risks RRs and corresponding 95%confidence intervals CI of stroke with respect to baseline prehypertension.

Results: Twelve studies with 518,520 participants were included. Prehypertension was associated with risk of stroke RR 1.55, 95% CI 1.35–1.79; p < 0.001. Seven studies further distinguished a low prehypertensive population systolic blood pressure [SBP] 120–129 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure [DBP] 80–84 mm Hg and a high prehypertensive population SBP 130–139 mm Hg or DBP 85–89 mm Hg. Among persons with lower-range prehypertension, stroke risk was not significantly increased RR 1.22, 0.95–1.57. However, for persons with higher values within the prehypertensive range, stroke risk was substantially increased RR 1.79, 95% CI 1.49–2.16.

Conclusions: Prehypertension is associated with a higher risk of incident stroke. This risk is largely driven by higher values within the prehypertensive range and is especially relevant in nonelderly persons. Randomized trials to evaluate the efficacy of blood pressure reduction in persons with this designation are warranted.

via Presence of baseline prehypertension and risk of incident stroke.

• Hurricane Jova upgraded to Cat 2 status. http://t.co/2rgVxcDw ->
• I'm hugely fond of contemplating complex itineraries, and then not doing them. All the satisfaction, none of the bad air. ->
• This is all over the geology blogs: Cliff failure in Cornwall caught on camera – http://t.co/NAdMcmd8 ->
• Wacky research result: In some circumstances exit times in evacuations improve if there is counterflow. http://t.co/y0YyWvV9 ->
• voxEU: The rise of the renminbi as international currency: Historical precedents – http://t.co/PC4X90mO ->
• Cute ZH headline — European Mission Accomplished: Everyone Is Now Thoroughly Baffled With Bullshit http://j.mp/oK1GHy ->
• <public service message>Sweet fuck but some VCs have zero self-awareness.</public service message> ->

• Jova now modeled to be Cat 3 hurricane when it makes landfall on Mexico's west coast this Wednesday. http://t.co/C9FkpzL2 ->
• Sorting through the 2011 hedge fund wreckage. http://t.co/mDzFPCEz ->
• Google Translate on Silvio Berlusconi's "culona inchiavabile" description of Angela Merkel – http://t.co/pMMqGXVY ->
• Gobsmacked that at 43% driving accuracy Tiger Woods made the cut at Fry's. Should be sponsored by off-road vehicle co. http://t.co/V3eBVzVL ->
• I'd like an all-media, perpetual filter for any writer or publication talking about the "next Steve Jobs". ->
• Reengineering Afghanistan: How the U.S. spent hundreds of millions trying to create an electric grid – http://t.co/5iRsviKA ->
• Can't, won't … whatever: Saudis See No Reason to Raise Oil Output Capacity – http://t.co/Pn1O5kJZ /cc @GregorMacdonald ->
• Pakistan, Adrift From U.S., Pulls Closer to a Reluctant China – http://t.co/1rZZWAQB ->
• Kiyosato: High plains drifter – http://t.co/ZvCiE3sg ->

• The Mystery of Steve Jobs' Plateless Car – http://t.co/DSrKS6UB ->
• What the Joker Was Doing Naked: Attempting to explain the DC Comics reboot – http://t.co/QOx6sOiH ->
• Hockey is back: "That's boarding? It's his own head." http://t.co/Jbi4I8NU ->
• [post] Michael Lewis: The First World Third World http://t.co/9HGTz0o3 ->

Worth a watch, even if the interviewer overdoes the dumb blonde thing: [-]

This is surprisingly lucid TV from Bruce Bartlett, former Reagan/Bush official. When did he go rogue?

Good msing from Paul Mason of BBC on how we make things worse from here:

So then, in the absence of decisive policy action, you get a sequence that goes: crash (2008); stimulus (2009); failure of stimulus (2011); second crash (2011/12); deflation; involuntary collapse of globalisation. In that situation, which I profoundly hope does not happen, every government becomes like the Brüning administration in Germany after 1931, still trying to make the old policy work in the new world, increasingly resorting to decree.

via BBC News – Thinking outside the 1930s box.