Echo Point, Blue Mountains.

During the past week we’ve discussed a number of great links; on Google+, Twitter, the Forums and so on. Here are a few of my favourites.

• Runners may live longer : In an as-yet unpublished study, researchers from the University of South Carolina looked at the cardiovascular health of endurance athletes and at data from the National Death Index; finding that the runners had about a 20 percent lower mortality rate than the non-runners. Much more research to be done on this, but it’s certainly an interesting start.
• Shotputting at 93 : Continuing the theme of senior athletes is the incredible Olga Kotelko, who at 93 still competed in various track & field events such as shotput and the hammer throw. Fantastic.
• Canada sues tobacco industry for future healthcare costs : I’m keen to see the result of this one – legal battles over healthcare costs which have yet to be incurred. Interesting one.
• Quantified Self technologies over the next 20 years : An interesting talk by Yuri van Geest at TEDxBrainport 2012 gives some insight into the potential of the various ‘quantified self‘ devices we’re now seeing. Very promising area.
• Parkinsons disease vaccine human trial : For a condition where all treatments up until now have been aimed at reducing the severity of symptoms (rather than stopping or reversing the disease), this is incredibly good news. The first human trial of a Parkinson’s disease vaccine has begun.

NB : to see all of these as they appear (and to share your own thoughts on things), the simplest way is to follow me on Google+. You’ll see these, and a whole lot more.