We all remember the Texas-born Swayze from his roles in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, but the actor's real break came from the television adaptation of North and South, a Civil War drama. The actor went on to star in a number of hits, like Point Break.

While we all have fond memories of Swayze's silver screen hits, we are most impressed by his courageous cancer battle. Though he knew his days were numbered, Swayae signed on to star in A&E's The Beast. And, honestly, whatever you'll say about the show, his gumption was commendable. We've previously honored Mr. Swayze with a video tribute, but here;s our absolutely favorite performance from Dirty Dancing, the sleeper hit that helped make him a star.

RIP, Patrick. You touched many lives and, as cynical and mean as we may be, will always be adored

[Via Copyranter]

The New York Post has been working the attention-starved prison sources at Madoff's new home hard, and they're snitching, lots. They say Bernie is taking "20 pills a day for his cancer" and is "not doing very well." [His cancer had been rumored even before his trial—You may recall that Bernie's prison in Butner, NC has an entire hospital facility attached for old and/ or sick prisoners.]

For all the hatred of Madoff and death wishes hurled at him during his trial, it's still sad to hear something like this now. He's become one of America's most pitiful figures. But perhaps he's finally found some real friends—prisoners tell the Post that he's taking part in sweat lodges, working painting fences, and being catered to by various prison cliques who'd like to recruit him, for some reason. He's apparently decided against the Nazi Low Riders or the Black Guerilla Family:

Madoff is also making new friends at the prison complex through another unlikely clique — the homosexual posse, although the relationships are purely platonic, according to the sources.

[Pic: AP]

South Carolina State University researchers burned candles in a lab and found that "paraffin wax candles gave off harmful fumes linked to lung cancer and asthma."

Lead researcher Amid Hamidi said people who frequently used candles, for instance to help them relax in the bath or provide the right ambience for dinner, were most at risk.

How many more people must die before Michael Bloomberg does something about candles? Children can buy them and everything! We must sue Big Candle.

To be sure: Sheila Jackson Lee represents inner-city Houston, Texas. Her district is 40% black and 36% Hispanic. (Jackson Lee's last Republican opponent, coincidentally, received 20% of the vote.) This woman questioning her has never and will never vote for Jackson Lee, and if her story of being an unemployed, divorcing cancer survivor without insurance is correct, she would be directly and immensely helped by any of the health care reform bills currently sitting in the House, whereas in our current American system, her lack of employment and her preexisting condition mean she is most likely fucked.

And this version of the video abruptly ends when the woman finishes her question, because Jackson Lee answered it by sort of explaining that fact.

But the health care argument is entirely, purely, 100% divorced from facts, reason, and logic. It is just fear, paranoia, and hatred. And murmuring on a phone (even if you're just calling the House health care hotline!) while a cancer survivor accuses you of wanting to kill her is just dumb.

When it gets cropped as an internal ad, it looks even weirder:

There are plenty of other photos of him out there, many in the public domain. Get well soon, Jeff.

This man, Clay Routledge, who is a psychologist and also a blogger has proven that thinking about death makes people want to raise their self-esteem. Which they do by tanning. Even though tanning will kill you as quick as asbestos cigarettes!

So in our studies we have people in one group think about death and people in a control group think about an unpleasant topic not related to death (e.g., dental pain, uncertainty). Then we measure their motivation to sun-tan or intentions to protect themselves from the sun. As predicted, we find that thinking about death increases the desire to tan and decreases the desire to use protective sunscreen.

This means that New Jersey is suicidal, right? Click this story thousands of times to refute this vociferously, Jersey-ites! We're back on pageview pay again here. Anyhow, the most surprising aspect of this whole scientific story was this:

So does tanning, by boosting self-esteem, help solve the problem of knowing that we are destined to die? For the last several years, my colleagues and I have been exploring this question.

Get a real job hippie.

Dodd is down in the polls, but a health care reform victory might help voters forget that he is a paid tool of the banking and credit card industries. Alternatively (and callously), this would maybe be a good opportunity for Dodd to step aside and not seek reelection and still save face? (Of course, this is a guy who moved his who family to Iowa before the presidential primaries and then finished sixth. But still.)

Obviously we wish him a speedy recovery.

A new analysis of about 20 studies concludes the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75% when people start using tanning beds before age 30...
The new classification means tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.

They are also "as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas," pale scientists say. Well fuck it bro, scientists never get any hoes anyhow. Don't stop till the bodies drop!
[WSJ]

McCourt, who will turn 79 next month, has been battling skin cancer, the Telegraph reports. In May, his brother Malachy McCourt denied reports at the time that Frank was in poor health, describing him as a "hearty fellow" who had been through worse. But the Telegraph says things have gotten worse:

After receiving treatment at the world-famous Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York, the writer was declared well enough to return home to Connecticut.

However, a friend said yesterday that Mr McCourt's condition has deteriorated dramatically since then and that he is seriously ill.

It is understood he became unwell while on a cruise in the Pacific and was transferred to a hospital in Tahiti.

McCourt's three memoirs of his hardscrabble upbringing in Ireland and career as a public schoolteacher in New York—Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man—were all New York Times bestsellers. He is said to be working on his first novel.

Kemp, who dies this weekend of cancer, was the first and last Buffalo Bills quarterback in history to win a championship. He was also a noted spokesman for dudes elected to higher office because they're famous already and willing to spout patent disagreeable nonsense in a palatable fashion. He was 73.

And Arlen Specter said something about how Nixon declared "war on cancer" back in 1970 but the government has not funded research enough, since then, which is why Jack Kemp is dead now. This doesn't seem to be really the same as saying "the conservative movement killed Jack Kemp," and it also seems like there has certainly been lots of money for cancer research, and it also seems like bullshit coming from a guy who still doesn't support a public insurance heath care plan.

Anyway. Please elect him again Pennsylvania he will do anything!

In a study that confirms what you totally already knew, it turns out that the active ingredient in ganja kills off brain cancer cells:

In the study, THC was found to induce the death of various human brain cancer cell lines and primary cultured human brain cancer cells by a process known as autophagy...

As analysis of tumors from two patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (a highly aggressive brain tumor) receiving intracranial THC administration showed signs of autophagy, the authors suggest that cannabinoid administration may provide a new approach to targeting human cancers.

It's like you can just feel it working, like the smoke is little soldiers going in and like grabbing the brain cancer and throwing it down a deep black hole and you exhale it out with the smoke and inhale purification and like, cleanse. Dude.
[Journal of Clinical Investigation via Science Daily]

"The day you find out is fine," Imus said. "But the next morning when you get up, your knees are shaking. I didn't think I could make it to work."

He speculated that the cancer could be a result of stress.

Sad. Wait, they let Don Imus back on the air? When did that happen? [NYP]

In 2007, Keil wrote in the Post about his skin cancer. He told of finally going in to have a mole checked out, and getting the bad news:

When I returned to have the bandages changed the next day, he came into the room with a solemn expression and said the chilling words that no one is ever quite prepared to hear: "The test was positive for a malignancy.

"We have to consider the possibility that the cancer has spread," explained Lefkovits. "I want to make sure you make it to your kids' weddings."

My children are 1 and 3 years old. Suddenly I had doubts I'd see them enter grade school.

Keil's most famous Gawker moment was his momentary feud with Mario Batali. No obituaries of him have run yet, but it's a fair bet his life will be celebrated at length. In 2000 he started chronicling the more interesting New York real estate stories for the Post in his "Gimme Shelter" column, which mixed gossip and gawking at the rich; one person said, with admiration, "no one at the Post was as Great Gatsby as he truly was."

[Pic of the Keils via NY Social Diary]

Goody, a multiple-time Big Brother star in England and India, plans to get married and have her two young sons christened on camera, and will sell the photo rights. She's doing it for three reasons, her publicist says:

What she said to me was simply this - 'I'm doing this for three reasons, one: because I want to make as much money as possible for my children, two: because it keeps me busy, it gives me something to think about other than cancer, and what's going to happen to me,' and three: since last August when she announced she had cancer, the amount of women having cervical smears has gone up over 20% right across Britain and that's something she's very happy about.

Which seems fair enough, I guess. If that's the best way she knows how to raise money for her kids, then that's the best way she knows how to raise money for her kids.

Seems kinda rough though.