Question of The Day

YO DAD, What’s a Floppy Disk?

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The FAA said yesterday that it will stop using floppy disks as part of a long-awaited upgrade that will give air traffic controllers faster access to data needed for crucial safety alerts. The new Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS) will be installed in 435 facilities, replacing several information display systems dating to the 1980s. FAA to finally ditch floppy disks in what it calls “historic” tech upgrade – https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/11/faa-to-finally-ditch-floppy-disks-in-what-it-calls-historic-tech-upgrade/

Yikes.

Does Illicit Drug Use Increase Stroke Risk?

/ SupremeCmdr / 2 Comments

Their results, published in the International Journal of Stroke, showed substantial differences in stroke risk associated with several drugs. Cocaine and amphetamine use were each linked to roughly twice the risk of stroke (cocaine increased the risk by 96%, amphetamines by 122%), while cannabis use was associated with an increase of about 37%. Opioid use, by contrast, showed no statistically significant association with stroke risk.

The researchers also examined people under age 55 separately. Within this younger group, amphetamine use was associated with nearly three times the risk of stroke (an increase of 174%). Cannabis was linked to a smaller 14% increase in stroke risk, while cocaine use was associated with a 97% increase. University of Cambridge. “Cannabis use linked to 37% higher stroke risk in massive study.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260822015215.htm (accessed August 23, 2026).

Journal Reference:

  1. Megan Ritson, Hugh S Markus, Eric L Harshfield. Does illicit drug use increase stroke risk? A systematic review, meta-analyses, and Mendelian randomization analysis. International Journal of Stroke, 2026; 21 (6): 788 DOI: 10.1177/17474930261418926

Yikes.

This Is Not Your Grandfather’s Weed

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So let me be the doctor who says it plainly. This is not the mild plant of the 1970s. Then, cannabis was 1-3% THC. Today’s products run 15-25%, and concentrates — dabs, vapes, wax — hit 70-90%+. When people say “it’s natural, it’s harmless,” they’re defending a product that no longer exists. We didn’t legalize the old plant. We industrialized a far more potent one.

A Danish registry study followed 6,788 people diagnosed with substance-induced psychosis. Overall, 32.2 percent later developed schizophrenia-spectrum or bipolar disorder. Among those with cannabis-induced psychosis, 47.4 percent later received one of those diagnoses.

A large Ontario cohort found that approximately 26 percent of people who presented to an emergency department with cannabis-induced psychosis were diagnosed with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder within three years. The corresponding rate after alcohol-induced psychosis was approximately 8.9 percent. Among the substances studied, cannabis-induced psychosis carried the highest risk of later transition to schizophrenia-spectrum illness. Is it cannabis-induced psychosis or bipolar disorder? https://kevinmd.com/2026/07/is-it-cannabis-induced-psychosis-or-bipolar-disorder.html

YIKES.

Would You Trust an AI Chatbot with Your Children?

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All this offloading of parental responsibility to AI is alarming because one of ChatGPT’s biggest flaws, its manipulative and sycophantic nature, is known to intensify delusions and cause breaks from reality — a grim phenomenon that’s been linked to numerous suicides, including several teenagers. Parents Using ChatGPT to Rear Their Children – https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/parents-chatgpt-rear-children

Here’s the disclaimer from the ChatGPT homepage:

ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.

Yikes.

Random Thoughts on Retirement and Longevity – Can Remote Work Delay Retirement?

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The mortality impact is interesting

The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that those who worked just a year beyond retirement age had a 9% to 11% lower risk of dying during the 18 years the research covered, regardless of health. Could Remote Work Delay Your Retirement? – https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/retirement-planning/could-remote-work-delay-your-retirement

If you only eat “superfoods” will you have a long life?

“There is no single secret to living a long, healthy life.” Salvatore Di Somma, MD. Sanford Burnham Prebys. “A long and ongoing look at the secrets of human longevity and healthy aging.” ScienceDaily – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/05/250505171023.htm

Coffee

All coffee types decrease the risk of adverse clinical outcomes in chronic liver disease: a UK Biobank study

Kennedy, O.J., Fallowfield, J.A., Poole, R. et al. BMC Public Health 21, 970 (2021) – https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10991

Movement is medicine

Being consistently physically active in adulthood is linked to a 30–40% lower risk of death from any cause in later life, while upping levels from below those recommended for health is still associated with a 20–25% lower risk, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It’s never too late: Just moving more could add years to your life — https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250711224321.htm

Whiskey

University of California neurologist Claudia Kawas and her team have been studying the lifestyle habits of people who live until their 90s. The group has been researching people of this age group for some 15 years – and they have found that those who drank two units of alcohol every day were less likely to die prematurely.“I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity,” Kawas said. – Whiskey makes you live a longer, healthier life — https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/food-drink/whiskey-live-longer-healthier

Loneliness

Now, however, new research is calling into question this long-held belief and, surprisingly, found that loneliness may not be quite the threat that we all once thought it was. In fact, the problem may be one of confusing cause and effect. The Surprising Truth About Loneliness and Longevity — https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/the-surprising-truth-about-loneliness-and-longevity

Loneliness is pervasive in home care settings across the 3 countries; however, its association with mortality differs from reports for the general population. Loneliness was not associated with an increased risk of death after adjusting for health-related covariates. The causal order between changes in health, loneliness, and mortality is unclear. For example, loneliness may be a consequence of those health changes rather than their cause. Cross-National Evidence on Risk of Death Associated with Loneliness: A Survival Analysis of 1-Year All-Cause Mortality among Older Adult Home Care Recipients in Canada, Finland, and Aotearoa | New Zealand — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S152586102500204X

Thinking Styles – What’s Your Style?

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Read this thinking style pyramid and refer back to it as often as needed.

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We are all suckers for click bait. I started with this:

Older Adults Face Higher Cancer Risk From Alcohol, Even at Low or Moderate Levels – https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/older-adults-face-higher-cancer-risk-alcohol-even-low-or-2025a

Scary stuff if you’re an older adult! I should STOP DRINKING ALCOHOL.

But what if this study is wrong? See pyramid above. Sensing bias in the article I took a look at the comments. Dr. Bradley Fawkes’ comment was noteworthy. In the results section of the study you’ll find this:

“While no associations were found for low- or moderate-risk drinking patterns vs occasional drinking among individuals without socioeconomic or health-related risk factors…” Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Mortality Among Older Adults With Health-Related or Socioeconomic Risk Factors – https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2822215

So in the absence of socioeconomic or health-related risk factors no associations were found.

Cheers!

Nutrition, Drugs, or Bariatric Surgery?

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The key to healthy and sustained weight loss is to “become attuned to the body’s signals, learn how to honor hunger, stop eating when satisfied, and eat more healthful foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins — especially plant-based proteins — and the body gives signals that this is what it wants.” Supatra Tovar, PsyD, RD — Nutrition, Drugs, or Bariatric Surgery: What’s the Best Approach for Sustained Weight Loss? – Medscape – January 10, 2025 https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/nutrition-drugs-or-bariatric-surgery-whats-best-approach-2025a10000kj?src

Lifestyle changes worked for me.

What’s Your Vitamin D Status?

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How is Your Vitamin D Status?

The precursors for vitamin D are reduced as we age. By age 70, our ability to produce vitamin D is about half of what it was at age 20. D is in scarce supply in our regular diets. Most milk and some juices, milk alternatives and cereals are fortified with D, but other dietary sources — fatty fish like mackerel and sardines, and some mushrooms — aren’t exactly a staple in most American diets. As a result, nearly 1 in 4 people in the U.S. have inadequate blood levels of vitamin D3, the most active form.

How Is Your Vitamin D Status – link above

Yikes.