Re: Why did Doyle die so young? (Sir A.Conan Doyle died at the age of 71)

 Ar an t-aonú lá is triochad de mí Lúnasa, scríobh Peter Moylan: 

 > [...] I read a lot of science fiction from the 1940s and 1950s, and there
 > one finds that in the far distant future, in the days of the Galactic
 > Empire, for example, almost everyone smokes.
 > 
 > That's how the writers of the 1940s saw it. Nonsmokers were rare, and
 > seen as a bit nonconformist. Nobody seems to have predicted the
 > situation we have today, where smokers find a need to smoke in secrecy,
 > and everyone avoids them because they stink. We've had a rapid change in
 > attitudes.

Nicotine is a fascinating molecule. It is a mild stimulant that improves
cognition and problem-solving, and I think it’s plausible that its effect was
part of the pace of economic development and raising GDP per capita in the 20th
century. I note 50% of Chinese men smoked in 2022, vs. 15% of Irish men, and
China’s rate of GDP per capita growth is has been much healthier for decades.

I do not endorse smoking, it is bad for you. I am not intrinsically negative
about nicotine replacement therapy or vaping.

-- 
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)