As a longtime tobacco user, I made the switch to vaping about 4 years ago. I agree with the above posters that speak of either cheap knock off batteries, and overly ambitious "Mods". I don't even like going into a vape store anymore and purchase anything I need online because of all the idiots toking on their drip mods with coils that they wound themselves, and that resemble the huge exhaust tips on some kids Ricer-mobile. They seem to think they everywhere they go is a cloud competition. I was grateful that vaping allowed me the opportunity to give up tobacco when nothing else worked, and as far as whether it's as harmful or not, time will tell. but common sense would dictate that inhaling something that is essentially on fire or at least smoldering is bound to be more harmful than water vapor with a little nicotine added. My bottom line is that its all about moderation, and whatever you do, you need to make sure you know what you're doing. I would bet money that every one of those 66 incidents involved either cheap knock-off hardware/batteries, or some idiot who was pushing the envelope and lost.

I am just a Windows/AD/Network Admin, and I get "headhunter" emails all the time. To read the position descriptions nowadays is hysterical. Most describe the duties of a full on DBA, a Network Engineer, a Help Desk Tech, and a Programmer. Not to mention specific SAN and Virtualization mastery. They want a 4 year degree (understandable for a large organization), and it's usually understood that you end up doing some Help Desk type work on occasion. But they only want to pay for a level 1 Help Desk tech. It is laughable that they make their offers with a straight face like there is a thousand IT Admins out there chomping at the bit to work for $40,000.00 a year. They may have gotten spoiled after the tech bubble burst years ago, when many of us were out of work and starving. But those days are long gone in my opinion. They may get some young kid fresh out ITT Tech for that, but you only get what you pay for. That's not to say there aren't some serious prodigy's out there, but most of us older guys with much more field experience, and usually a better work ethic just won't work for that kind of money.

I worked for Radio Shack back in the early 90's I thought it would be such a cool dream job, Within 6 months, I was promoted to a store manager and given my own store. Sadly, I soon learned the harsh reality of corporate marketing, sales gains, profits, and other related BS. Imagine having to ask your customers to sign a document saying that you tried to sell them a Tandy service plan! What a joke. I don't know what the Hell John Roach was thinking. I used to have small time hobbyists as customers that came to my store because I knew something about electronics and could help them out with whatever project they were working on. I loved it, and they loved it. I know it didn't make for huge profits, but it sure made for a loyal, steady, customer base. Radio Shack demanded double digit sales gains every quarter. No way that was going to happen when the customers knew they could buy the same TV or VCR at WalMart for half the cost, But my best memories were of the old time HAM's and retired tinkerers would come in and chat about designing a speaker cabinet with the best volumetric efficiency and frequency response, or some other electronic project they were working on. They could chat for hours! and they would willingly spend money with you because they trusted and confided in you. Too bad it just didn't jive with "profits", and "shareholder value". I understand the reality of it. But it still sucks. I miss those old guy's bringing in coffee and snacks, talking for what seemed like hours. My part timers eyes would glaze over after about 5 minutes of our conversation. It must have seemed to them like a conversation with Stephen Hawking LOL! But they knew all those old folks, as my store was located in a rural community, and they knew that it was the highlight of those old folks day to come in and talk tech with somebody who enjoyed it as much as they did. I will always remember those days.

I was making Biodiesel back in 1996 when Josh Tickell was driving his Veggie Van across the country making big news. Frankly that was the death knell for us as individuals who made their own BioDiesel. I went for years without ever buying a bit of fuel for my car. All the restaraunt folks called me MacGyver and marvelled at my Diesel Mercedes that smelled like french fries. Once BioDiesel caught on as a commercial idea, the recyclers that used to charge the restaraunts for taking the grease started paying for it and locking the restaraunts into "Contracts", and putting locks on the grease containers. It is now a crime to take any grease from a "Griffin Industries" grease tank (the major recycler here in Tennessee), and because of the contracts, the restaraunt can't even give it to you before they put it in the tanks. The contracts are worded such that once the grease comes out of the fryer, it is the property of the recycler. Once something becomes commercially viable, the individual is screwed. I ended up selling my fuel proccessor and getting out of it because I couldn't get any waste oil/grease. The recyclers pay way more for it in order to discourage us from buying it directly from the restaraunts, at least they did back when I was doing it. It may be different now that have run us all out of making our own fuel. In addition, the price of the chemicals went through the roof as well so now your cheaper off to buy dino-diesel, at least if you were doing it for cost reasons. Back in the 90's I was making a 50 gallon batch of BioDiesel for about 50 cents a gallon. Whats happening now I suppose is that some of my brethren are taking it from the grease tanks at restaraunts. Of course now the recyclers can burn you at the stake for that since they can nail you for larceny, transporting biowaste, etc. And they will nail every one they catch to the wall just to make an example of them because they know that there is a lot of us out there. I saw the writing on the wall and refocused my energies towards electric vehicles, solar, geothermal etc. At thats not against the law... Yet....