Posts Tagged ‘Maxim’
“Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding”*…
A new study reveals more than a quarter-million people died from firearm-related injuries in 2016, with half of those deaths occurring in only six countries in the Americas: Brazil, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guatemala.
A part of the Global Burden of Disease, the study assesses firearm-related mortality between 1990 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories by age and by sex. It is the most extensive study ever conducted on global firearm-related deaths. Deaths from conflict and terrorism, executions, and law enforcement shootings were not included in the total estimates.
“This study confirms what many have been claiming for years – that gun violence is one of the greatest public health crises of our time,” said Dr. Mohsen Naghavi, a professor of global health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, and first author of the study. “There are no simple antidotes to address this health problem. The tragedy of each firearm-related death will continue until reasonable and reasoned leaders come together to address the issue.”…
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reports: “Six countries in the Americas account for half of all firearm deaths.” The full report, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is summarized here.
* Stephen King
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As we search for those “reasonable and reasoned leaders,” we might send quiet birthday greetings to Hiram Percy Maxim; he was born on this date in 1869. An inventor, he created the “Maxim silencer.” In that accomplishment he was in keeping with family tradition: His uncle, Hudson Maxim, created smokeless gun powder and both the explosive maximite and the delayed-action detonating fuse (which enabled torpedoes); and his father, Hiram Stevens Maxim, invented the Maxim machine gun,
Nutriceuticals for the rest of us…
Readers who remember Brewdog– earlier-featured purveyors of the “world’s strongest beer: Tactical Nuclear Penguin”— won’t be surprised that the scrappy Scottish brewery has risen to the occasion of the upcoming Royal Wedding. Their “Royal Virility Performance” is a 7.5% ABV India Pale Ale laced with Viagra, chocolate, Horny Goat Weed– and of course, a healthy dose of sarcasm.
The brew will be available on April 28… but readers should act quickly– only 1,000 bottles will be produced!
[TotH to If It’s Hip It’s Here]
As we rethink our wedding present choices, we might recall that it was on this date in 1993 that Bill Wyman, the bassist of The Rolling Stones, wed Suzanne Accosta. Though moderate (at least by Stones’ standards) in his use of alcohol and drugs, Wyman was a compulsive womanizer; indeed, Maxim ranks Wyman at number 10 on its “Living Sex Legends” list, as he is reputed to have had sex with over 1000 women. Nonetheless, he did have relationships that were at least relatively more permanent… He married his first wife, Dianne, in 1959; they had a son, Stephen Paul Wyman, then divorced in 1969. From 1967 through 1983, Wyman was romantically linked to Astrid Lundström.
Then in 1989 Wyman married the 18-year-old Mandy Smith, whom he had been dating since she was 13; a relationship that was understandably the subject of considerable media attention. The marriage ended in spring 1991, although the divorce was not finalized until 1993. In that final year of Bill’s union with Mandy, Stephen– his son from his first marriage– became engaged to Smith’s mother….
But Wyman’s third marriage was the charm: he is still happily joined to Accosta, with whom he is raising three daughters.
Accosta, Wyman, and their daughters at the 2010 premiere of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones (source)
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