NEWTON AND E-CIGS

Linda is in the northern hemisphere and I am in the southern  hemisphere.  We both are hot and sweaty.  Where are we?

Not long ago I read the statement that “it requires real courage to investigate the obvious”.    This is certainly  true, in most cases, but not all.  Take Isaac Newton, for instance.  The prevailing opinion about falling in his time, insofar as anybody had an opinion, must have been something like “Well, God wants everything to be as low as possible.”  Or maybe, “the natural place for everything is on the ground”.  But, really, nobody cared:  falling was obvious.  Then Newton spoiled it all, and classical physics was born.

Well, nowadays it also takes an independent income, because no funding body will finance you if you want to investigate, for instance, why are there men? (See recent blog about parthenogenesis in ants.) Unless, maybe, the National Institutes of Health.  The NIH, has just paid for an investigation as to why there are e-cigarettes.  Well, actually, the study concerned itself with how the introduction of e-cigs has impacted things like total nicotine consumption and usage of conventional cigarettes by teens.  And guess what, by Golly: e-cigs have made everything worse!  The health practices of kids with regard to tobacco are worse now than just a few years ago.

And why would you believe otherwise?  E-cigs are not lollypops.  They are the Lucky Strikes of today, designed to infer social cachet on users, as well as provide a mild euphoria.  Teens are herd animals; they judge what is right by what the rest of the herd is doing.  Hell, when I took up smoking it was entirely because of social stimuli – and, God knows, I am not easy to influence!  I just wanted Marj and Patsy to notice me.

Note that the health argument cuts little ice amongst teens.  Teens are immortal.  Teens don’t worry about ill-health; mostly they worry about passing the next exam, making the football team, and getting laid.  We knew that those Lucky Strikes were bad for us.  Why else would we have called them coffin-nails?

So e-cigs are dangerous and must be stomped into powder. As a Liberal, in the original sense, I oppose this - but as a health nut I'm in favor.   Maybe if The Donald were to issue another Executive Order ….. ?