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Comment Re: Absolute bullshit (Score 2) 227

Gotcha. You'd be surprised. There are a lot of us, at least here in the US. With states imposing stupid flavor bans, or taxing eliquid to death, to the point where it's cheaper to just smoke cigarettes, we resort to doing it ourselves, and for others. Prohibition just creates black markets. Same old story. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Comment Re:Absolute bullshit (Score 1) 227

Also, I have personally known people who were able to kick multiple addictions thanks to vaping. No really. People on heroin/fentanyl, alcoholics... all also smoked. Vaping helped them kick nearly all of their vices. Yep, but little Joey shit-face from down the street got caught Juuling at school, and his mom, Karen, was none too pleased, so shut the entire show down! Phillip Morris has other ideas for Joey.

Comment Re:Absolute bullshit (Score 1) 227

That's just it though. It's not an individual circumstance. Millions of people have been able to break the curse of cigarette smoking addiction through vaping. Now they are trying to take it away from us. Killing off Juul effectively halves the market. I am more concerned about the countless others that are going to not even get the same opportunity that I had to finally quit. They are actively encouraging smokers to continue smoking with these actions. I find that unacceptable.

I've also home-brewed, always been fascinated with all things fermented.

Comment Re:Absolute bullshit (Score 1) 227

I mix my own eliquids, and have for some time. The FDA is making that increasingly difficult as well, so it doesn't really matter what "brand". The demonization of safer alternatives to nicotine consumption are just fucking silly. Imagine if the same thing were to happen with everyone's favorite drug, caffeine. Oh the horror!

Comment Absolute bullshit (Score 1) 227

I'm no fan of Juul and their prior business tactics and being in bed with big tobacco. But vaping saves lives. It's a fact. There is no denying it anymore. I've experienced it first hand. An uncle of mine reversed his COPD symptoms after 40+ years of smoking cigarettes using a Juul. I was diagnosed with heart disease in my 30's largely in part because I couldn't quit smoking. A heart attack came soon after, but I still didn't quit. 9 years ago I smoked my last cigarette and switched to vaping. My blood pressure is now normal, I no longer need most of my prescription medications, and nearly normal cholesterol levels for a healthy male of my age. Yet we get the fucking shaft because "the children" and deplorable junk science backed by shitty orgs like the AHA and ALA. And the FDA waving their giant government dick in the air. They should be fucking ashamed of themselves.

First Person Shooters (Games)

Gamer Plays Doom For the First Time 362

sfraggle writes "Kotaku has an interesting review of Doom (the original!) by Stephen Totilo, a gamer and FPS player who, until a few days ago, had gone through the game's 17-year history without playing it. He describes some of his first impressions, the surprises that he encountered, and how the game compares to modern FPSes. Quoting: 'Virtual shotgun armed, I was finally going to play Doom for real. A second later, I understood the allure the video game weapon has had. In Doom the shotgun feels mighty, at least partially I believe because they make first-timers like me wait for it. The creators make us sweat until we have it in hand. But once we have the shotgun, its big shots and its slow, fetishized reload are the floored-accelerator-pedal stuff of macho fantasy. The shotgun is, in all senses, instant puberty, which is to say, delicately, that to obtain it is to have the assumed added potency that a boy believes a man possesses vis a vis a world on which he'd like to have some impact. The shotgun is the punch in the face the once-scrawny boy on the beach gives the bully when he returns a muscled linebacker.'"

Comment I took the test... (Score 1) 175

...and my score was roughly 0.95. My highest rated model (which I gave a 3), had an average score of 1.36. Eye of the beholder, I suppose... The only models I really scored 0 were models that lacked any hip definition. Basically, models that looked like dudes with tits. A sight that is all too common here in America. Get a treadmill, America.

Cellphones

Biggest Study On Cellphone Health Effects Launched in Europe 109

An anonymous reader writes "The biggest study to date into the effects of cellphone usage on long-term health was launched today, aiming to track at least a quarter of a million of people in five European countries for up to 30 years. The Cohort Study on Mobile Communications (COSMOS) differs from previous attempts to examine links between mobile phone use and diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders in that it will follow users' behaviour in real time. Most other large-scale studies have centred around asking people already suffering from cancer or other diseases about their previous cellphone use. Researchers said long-term monitoring will provide more time for diseases to develop, since many cancers take 10 or 15 years for symptoms to appear."
Education

Obama Makes a Push To Add Time To the School Year 1073

N!NJA sends in a proposal that is sure to cause some discussion, especially among students and teachers. Obama and his education secretary say that American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage in comparison to other students around the globe. "'Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,' the president said earlier this year. 'Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.' 'Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,' Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. ... 'Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,' Duncan told the AP. 'I want to just level the playing field.' ... Kids in the US spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the US on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days)."
It's funny.  Laugh.

Burglar Logs Into Facebook On Victim's Computer 337

yet-another-lobbyist writes to mention that Facebook addiction has finally caused real world consequences, at least for one would-be burglar. It seems that 19-year-old Jonathan Parker couldn't stay away from the popular social networking site, even long enough to rob a house. Parker not only stopped mid-robbery to check his Facebook status on the victim's computer, but left it logged in to his account when he left.
Mars

Spirit Stuck In Soft Soil On Mars 160

cheros writes "NASA reports that the Spirit Mars lander is presently stuck in soft soil. The lander's wheels are halfway sunk into the soil and they are planning simulation tests to see if they can get it out again. I hope they can get it out of there because it's picking up enough new energy to operate; however, it only has 5 wheels left to get around on — one of the wheels hasn't been working for years. Fingers crossed."
Upgrades

Use apt-p2p To Improve Ubuntu 9.04 Upgrade 269

An anonymous reader writes "With Jaunty Jackalope scheduled for release in 12 days on April 23, this blog posting describes how to switch to apt-p2p in preparation for the upgrade. This should help significantly to reduce the load on the mirrors, smooth out the upgrade experience for all involved, and bypass the numerous problems that have occurred in the past on Ubuntu release day. Remember to disable all third-party repositories beforehand."
Government

Clear Public Satellite Imagery Tantamount to Yelling Fire 230

TechDirt pointed out a recent bit of foolishness as a followup to California Assemblyman Joel Anderson's push to force Google and other online mapping/satellite companies to blur out schools, churches, and government buildings. When pushed, apparently his justification was that leaving these buildings un-obscured is the same as shouting fire. "News.com ran an interview with Anderson, where he attempts to defend his proposed legislation as a matter of public safety. He claims that there is no good reason why anyone would need to clearly see these buildings online, and that it can only be used for bad purposes. [...] Apparently, Anderson is the final determiner of what good people do and what bad people do with online maps."

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