Is this for real?

I have not had the time to blog lately. I do, however, keep up on all of the latest news. Here is a story that I just had to post:

(CNSNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded more than $400,000 to a research project involving underwear that can detect when a person smokes cigarettes.

No way.... I say that it's satire. It has to be. Our government is broke at the federal level and our cities don't have enough money to pay for police and firefighters in adequate numbers. People are getting shot (and are dying) every day in cities all across America. Surely our government wouldn't be sacrificing our safety by diverting our hard earned tax dollars to frivolous projects such as this one, would they? I mean, times are tight, are they not?

No wonder they keep wanting to raise our taxes. I took some years of living, but I think that I get it now.

Wasteful much?

H/T to Harley for posting this on Facebook via NYC Clash-


Feds Spend $402,721 on Underwear That Senses Cigarette Smoke | CNS News

Question of the day : Should the Illinois House Hold Hearing on Tobacco Harm Reduction?

There is going to be a hearing this week on the issue of tobacco harm reduction in the Illinois House via the Illinois Consumer Protection Committee. As usual, the ALA has come out in opposition to any such hearing. There is a poll and a comments section that follow the commentary in the link below, please feel free to participate!

Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » *** UPDATED x1 *** Question of the day

Calling Out the Nanny State For What It Is

Thanks to Marshall Keith for posting this on Facebook via NYC Clash-

Reducing smokers' exposure to cigarette smoke toxicants -- our first clinical study results | Science Codex

 I've been so busy with life that I almost missed this one:

All test cigarettes were successful in reducing vapour-phase toxicants such as acrolein and 1,3-butadiene, and the reductions in exposure were greater and sometimes much greater than 50 per cent. The test product containing the enzyme-treated tobacco was associated with a statistically significant reduction in tobacco-specific nitrosamines of around 90 per cent, as well as a significant reduction in exposure to the carcinogens 3- and 4-aminobiphenyl of around 40 per cent.

...these results provide the impetus for us to conduct additional further longer-term studies and to develop biomarkers more relevant to biological effects.'

What would happen if most smokers made a conscious effort to smoke less (ie., in moderation) while switching over to harm reduction cigarettes? 


Reducing smokers' exposure to cigarette smoke toxicants -- our first clinical study results | Science Codex

Cell Therapy Holds Promise For The Future

This is some pretty amazing stuff! Perhaps someday cell therapy can be utilized in the battle against cancer in all of its forms.

The treatment uses patients’ own T-cells, a type of white blood cell that normally fights viruses and cancer. The patient’s blood is run through a machine that extracts T-cells and returns the rest of the blood to the body. Researchers then do some genetic engineering: they use a disabled virus as a “vector” to carry new genetic material into the T cells, which reprograms them to recognize and kill any cell that carries a particular protein on its surface.

Cell Therapy Promising for Acute Type of Leukemia - NYTimes.com

..Some politicallly incorrect news from a politically incorrect doctor

A new study on mice shows that nicotine — yes THAT nicotine — can help grow the new blood vessels needed to relieve all those conditions and more by stimulating the release of critical adult stem cells.

I wonder why this hasn't been reported on the nightly news.........


Nicotine grows new blood cellsDouglass Report - Official Site

More Madness

By unanimous vote, the Senate Regulated Industries Committees approved the measure (SB 258), which expands the state’s clear indoor air restrictions to more outdoor venues. Voters approved the Florida Indoor Clean Air Act a decade ago.

Right. So voters approved the Indoor Clean Air Act over a decade ago, but apparently, that was not enough to satisfy the prohibitionists. Once given an inch, anti figures out a way to incrementally make us all miserable.

“Nobody wants to put anyone in jail for doing these things but it does send a signal,” said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine. “This state wants to be smoke free, eventually…. this is just one incremental step toward getting there.”

What kind of signal does it send Sen. Thrasher, that incremental steps towards neo-statism are all that's good and noble? This is the trajectory that you have chosen to pursue? Are you sure that you're a Republican sir?


Take a gander at how much $$ the state of Florida takes in from tobacco alone.


From the fiscal year of 2010:


$1,908,661,429- That is how much the state of Florida made off of tobacco in the fiscal year of 2010. 


I think that it's time that we demand a bit of respect.


No smoking outside?: Senate panel passes outdoor smoking ban bill | Pensacola News Journal | pnj.com