Ben Barr

This image depicts a line graph showing cardiovascular mortality rates in the United States from 1933 to 2023, alongside key advancements in medicine, surgery, and public health. The y-axis represents age-standardized death rates from cardiovascular disease, ranging from 0 to 600. The x-axis represents years from 1933 to 2023. The graph starts at around 600 deaths per 100,000 people in 1933 and trends downward sharply over the decades, indicating a significant decline in mortality rates. Key advancements are marked along the timeline, including the introduction of the first heart-lung machine in 1953, the first cardiac CT scan in 1977, and the first 3D-printed heart models in 2012. Footnote information states that data begins in 1933 when all U.S. states started reporting cardiovascular mortality rates, sourced from the National Center for Heart Statistics in 2020 and the CDC Wonder in 2025. The chart is published by Saloni Dattani at Our World in Data.

New article by me!

Cardiovascular disease mortality rates have declined by around three-quarters since 1950, but we rarely hear about it.

I explore some of the reasons behind the decline.
ourworldindata.org/cardiovascul...

Haven’t actually read this - but thought it was a great title. Seems relevant- www.amazon.ca/Smile-Die-Po...

Sure, I think that's always been a very clear part of his health stance. It's the cornerstone of the right-wing argument - that people can control their own health, and so poor people are generally sick by choice.

In last week's Basic Income Show we discussed a new study that showed how blood plasma income (about $400/mo) reduces crime by 12%.

People shouldn't have to sell their blood for survival income, and we should acknowledge how much crime is survival crime.

itsanewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/itsa-found...

Does large-scale public primary school construction improve educational mobility in developing countries? No credible evidence on this. We estimate the effects of 61k primary schools in Indonesia. Short answer: improved mobility for disadvantaged sons, but not for daughters. Why? #Econsky

UMich cancels doctoral epidemiology program admissions for 2026 The University of Michigan School of Public Health will not admit a 2025-2026 admissions cycle cohort to its PhD in Epidemiologic Sciences program.

holy fucking shit. I came yay close to doing my PhD in Michigan. probably not a coincidence that they are world-class for social epidemiology and health disparity research. www.michigandaily.com/news/news-br...

Watch Critical: Between Life and Death | Netflix Official Site From critical emergencies to the operating room, this documentary series follows London's trauma centres as they treat the most severely injured.

There is a great new Netflix documentary telling stories from London's major trauma system: www.netflix.com/watch/81783515

Interesting- that makes some sense, hadn’t thought of the Aussie influence.

Younger based on my sample on 1 (I.e me)

What is the age threshold where you still mutter “versity” when people say “uni” ?

Reenchanting nature: Alan Garner’s children’s fiction I recently had a conversation with someone who shares my enthusiasm for, though in fact far exceeds my knowledge of, the fiction of Alan ...

My friend Tim Thorton has written this interesting philosophy blog post about re-enchantment in the face of the disenchantment of scientism - using the fiction of Alan Garner to respond to the concerns of people like Fodor and McDowell.

inthespaceofreasons.blogspot.com/2025/07/reen...

We at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk have coordinated a letter in @thetimes.com today in which numerous individuals and organisations call on the government to withdraw its mistaken rules which are having a serious chilling effect on civil servants speaking in public…

My beloved father in law Ranjith Chandrapala drove a bus that stopped at Ealing Hospital. He continued to do so throughout the pandemic’s first wave until he caught covid himself and died, in that very same hospital. Many very ordinary heroes risked their lives for things others took for granted.

Some big names (in Euro foreign affairs bubble terms, of course) on this letter.

The EU, like the UK and the US, is way out of step with the reality and gravity of the horrors perpetrated by the Israeli government.

Children queuing for supplements killed in Israeli strike in Gaza, hospital says Eight children were among 15 people reportedly killed when a queue for nutritional supplements was hit in Deir al-Balah.

Massacre after massacre, day after day - the deliberate annihilation of an entire civilian population.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I am writing to ask you to delete the official King’s account on X, or at least to stop posting there, and to instruct other official KCL accounts to do the same “Grok” – which is the official X integrated AI/chat feature – is now directly praising Hitler and calling for Jews and others to be put in concentration camps. This is ,as widely reported, the direct result of its reprogramming by Elon Musk. In other words, it’s not that X has been largely overrun by far-right accounts – although that is also the case – this directly Nazi propaganda is coming directly from X itself/its senior management There is absolutely no excuse or justification for us to have any presence there at all any more and we should stop

I have sent this email to my Director of Comms at KCL and would encourage others to do likewise.

1/ 🚨 #JobOffer Data Manager to support GroundsWell Consortium (@groundswellcon.bsky.social) & contribute to impactful research on urban health!

⏳ Application deadline: 23:30 BST, 18 Jul 2025

🔗 Link to role and how to apply: my.corehr.com/pls/ulivrecr...

#AcademicJobs #ResearchJobs #PublicHealth

Estimating population mental health effects of the rollout of Universal Credit in the UK using standard and novel Difference-in-Differences analysis, 2009–2019 Universal Credit (UC) was introduced in the UK in April 2013 in selected areas, marking the beginning of its phased rollout. Previous research identif…

More evidence of the adverse mental health effects of welfare changes. Estimating population mental health effects of the rollout of Universal Credit in the UK using standard and novel Difference-in-Differences analysis, 2009–2019. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@MichellCClark: they made healthcare a commodity, education a debt trap, and housing a speculation market-then told you that poverty is a personal failing. they privatized survival and called it freedom.

That last line hits hard

Clip from an 1885 copy of the Greenwich and Deptford observer. The article is titled UNLAWFUL POSSESSION OF ONIONS. It details the case of George Smith, 45, who refused his address when charged with the unlawful possession of a quantity of onions. A police officer saw him on Shooters Hill and George couldn't give a satisfactory account of how he came to possess so many onions. Then he made several contradictory statements. He was fined 10 shillings or 7 days jail. At no point does the article state exactly how many onions was too many onions.

Morning.

Let's start the week with some late-Victorian South East London crime.

A crime so shocking it'll make your eyes water.

A case with... many layers?

A lot of this seems to be: ‘ Our strategy is … to produce lot of other strategies..’

Opposing the proscription of Palestine Action — Just Treatment Read the collective statement signed by health and human rights organisations.

Read more: justtreatment.org/news/2025/7/...

@justtreatment.org

Fibre optical cables stretched across a field in Ukraine, left behind by tethered drones used in war.

The photos from Ukraine of drone fibre optic debris remind me of Italo Calvino's Ersilia:

"In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city's life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether… 1/

My 13 year old son is convinced this is the future. AIs forcing us to share nicely in an anarcho-communist utopia

UN experts urge United Kingdom not to misuse terrorism laws against protest group Palestine Action GENEVA – UN experts* today urged the United Kingdom not to ban the “direct action” group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000.“We are concerned at the unjustified ...

UN urges UK govt not to ‘misuse’ terrorism laws to proscribe @Pal_action as a terrorist group when it has not threatened or endangered life bit.ly/4kgnE7y and create a string of crimes in its wake

The Net Benefits of Raising Bachelor’s Degree Completion through the City University of New York ACE Program Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...

@cuny.edu's ACE program — designed to boost bachelor’s degree completion --pays off with net social benefits >$48,000 over a participant’s lifetime from higher earnings & labor force attachment, better health, lower public transfers, and benefits to the next generation.
www.nber.org/papers/w33956

Young adults are dying at an increasing rate in the United States. France roughly mirrored the US before the introduction of Oxycontin in the mid-90s and later fentanyl. The US isn't doing a great job looking after its own people. Source: buff.ly/ZXjvdQI

Good question from @lewisgoodall.com @lbc.co.uk this morning.

Why are only @TheGreenParty talking about the terrible state of #PublicHealth in the UK?

#BenefitCuts #TwoTierPIP