Until late last year, when he was elevated to the command of the entire army, the Pakistani spymaster who had been running the I.S.I. was Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. American officials describe this smart and urbane general as at once engaging and inscrutable, an avid golfer with occasionally odd affectations. During meetings, he will often spend several minutes carefully hand-rolling a cigarette. Then, after taking one puff, he stubs it out. (…)

One senior C.I.A. official, recently retired, said that of all the foreign spymasters the C.I.A. had dealt with, General Kayani was the most formidable and may have earned the most respect at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va. The soft-spoken general, he said, is a master manipulator.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

photo { Sam Bassett }

Japan’s cigarette vending machine face-recognition system rely on cameras that scan the purchaser’s face for wrinkles, sagging skin and other signs of age. Facial characteristics are compared with a database of more than 100,000 people, and if the purchaser is thought to be well over 20 years old (the legal age), the sale is approved. If the purchaser looks too young, they are asked to prove their age by inserting a driver’s license. According to Fujitaka, the machines are 90% accurate.

A reporter went to check out the age-verifying machines after they were introduced in the Osaka area in June. He soon discovered that the machines equipped with face-recognition cameras would let him buy cigarettes when he held up a 15-centimeter (6-in) wide magazine photo of a man who looked to be in his 50s.

The reporter also went to Kobe, where different face recognition hardware is being used. There, he bought cigarettes using an 8-centimeter (3-in) wide magazine photo of a female celebrity in her 30s. He also reportedly tried to use a 3-centimeter (1-in) wide photo, but the machines rejected it.

{ Pink Tentacle | Continue reading }

Starting July 1, marijuana will be the only leaf that can be smoked in public places in the Netherlands.

Local pot smokers, who usually cut joints with tobacco, and owners of the “coffee shops” where they are allowed to light up will have to change their habits when the nation implements the indoor tobacco ban. Puffing a pure marijuana cigarette in public will still be permitted; smoking one with tobacco will merit coffee shop owners a 300-euro ($466) fine for the first offense and 2,400 euros for a fourth.

“Every customer will have to learn how to smoke pure,” said Robert Kempen, co-owner of The NooN and Mellow Yellow in Amsterdam, which sell marijuana and hashish. The rule makes him “sick to death,” he said, rolling himself a joint.

{ Bloomberg | Continue reading }

image { 420dating }

People who sleep fewer than six hours a night — or more than nine — are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies.

The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use.

The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don’t get proper shuteye, said Dr. Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

“The data is all coming together that short sleepers and long sleepers don’t do so well,” Kramer said.

The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 U.S. adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Such surveys can’t prove cause-effect relationships, so — for example — it’s not clear if smoking causes sleeplessness or if sleeplessness prompts smoking, said Charlotte Schoenborn, the study’s lead author.

It also did not account for the influence of other factors, such as depression, which can contribute to heavy eating, smoking, sleeplessness and other problems.

Smoking was highest for people who got under six hours of sleep, with 31 percent saying they were current smokers. Those who got nine or more hours also were big puffers, with 26 percent smoking.

The overall U.S. smoking rate is about 21 percent. For those in the study who sleep seven to eight hours, the rate was lower, at 18 percent.

{ AP/Yahoo | Continue reading }

Cigarette vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow’s feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke.

The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20 and as the country’s 570,000 tobacco vending machines prepare for a July regulation requiring them to ensure buyers are not underage, a company has developed a system to identify age by studying facial features.

By having the customer look into a digital camera attached to the machine, Fujitaka Co’s system will compare facial characteristics, such as wrinkles surrounding the eyes, bone structure and skin sags, to the facial data of over 100,000 people, Hajime Yamamoto, a company spokesman said.

{ Reuters | Continue reading }

{ Camel and Winston smoking areas at Zürich airport, Switzerland | photos: SDP/nswd }

{ related: dead men (alleged world cigarette smoking record) }

The ban on smoking in cafés and restaurants in Holland will not apply to the smoking of pure marijuana or cannabis, said health minister Ab Klink.

The ban falls under the tobacco laws and does not apply to tobacco-free products. The minister confirmed that mixing tobacco with soft drugs in ‘coffee shops’ (where cannabis products can be bought over the counter) will not be permitted from July 1.

{ Dutch News | Continue reading }

related { Patriot Act used in drug case, lawyer riled }

photo { Mary Ellen Mark }

In a new study, city health officials found that obesity and diabetes rates in NYC increased 17% between 2002 and 2004. By contrast, there was a 6% increase in national obesity rates during that time, and no significant increase in the rate of diabetes. City residents also gained 10 million pounds collectively during the two-year period, researchers found.

While public health officials said the findings underscored the need for disease prevention programs, others drew a correlation between the rising obesity rate and a smoking ban that took effect in the city’s bars and restaurants in 2003. According to city health officials, about 240,000 New Yorkers quit smoking since the agency launched a comprehensive antismoking campaign in 2002.

Weight gain among individuals who quit smoking has been well documented. According to one study that evaluated weight gain after smoking cessation, researchers found the risk of weight gain is highest during the two years after a person quits.

{ NY Sun | Continue reading }

A tortoise that smokes and appears to be addicted to nicotine has been discovered in China. The animal is the pet of a man, identified by his surname Yun, who is himself a smoker. One day, Mr Yun teased the tortoise by putting a cigarette butt into its mouth, and to his surprise it started to smoke it, according to the news agency. From then on, he shared his cigarettes with his pet, Xinhua said.

{ AFP | Continue reading }

photo { Matt Hoyle }

Galila Huff, a chain-smoking restaurateur from the Upper West Side, always thought that when it came to smoking, her apartment was her sanctuary.

But perhaps it is no longer. Her neighbors, Jonathan Selbin, a class-action lawyer who has honed his skills suing major corporations, and his wife, Jenny Selbin, also a lawyer, are irate over the cigarette smoke that they say seeps from Ms. Huff’s apartment into the common hallway of their building, the elegant Beaux-Arts Ansonia, on Broadway between 73rd and 74th Streets.

Her smoking, they say, makes the hallway smell like “a Las Vegas casino,” and the secondhand smoke is jeopardizing the health of their 4-year-old son, Charlie.

In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, they are demanding that she “cease and desist from causing smoke to enter into the common hallway,” and that she pay punitive damages.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

Even as New York taxpayers spend $87 million a year urging smokers to kick the habit, the state is selling lighters and ashtrays plastered with the “I ♥ NY” logo. The sales are part of a marketing push that saw state revenues from officially licensed novelties surge past $1 million last year, up from $531,000 in 2005.

The disposable plastic lighters and ceramic ashtrays feature the 31-year-old logo as well as a copyright symbol and the initials of the Department of Economic Development. Famed graphic designer Milton Glaser, who created the “I ♥ NY” logo for free but does not control the copyright, said he would never have approved the deal.

{ NY Post | Continue reading }

One billion people may die of tobacco-related illness this century, almost all of them in developing countries. (…) Tobacco use is a risk factor for six of the world’s eight leading causes of death and causes about one in every 10 deaths of adults now.

{ Washington Post | Continue reading | The Economist }

illustration { Chrissie Abbott }

Some dermatologists said that the nonsmokers among their patients generally had younger-looking skin than smokers, whose skin appeared to have aged prematurely. (…)

But the research into such observations is conflicting. One study published in England, based on interviews and physical examinations of elderly patients, suggested that smoking a pack a day over decades was associated with skin changes like wrinkles that added the equivalent of almost a decade of chronological aging to the face. But another study in Finland, in which researchers performed biopsies on the arm skin of volunteers, found no difference in skin elasticity between smokers and nonsmokers.

Several other studies have linked smoking to an increased risk of skin cancer. But doctors said it is not clear whether smoking per se may increase the risk of skin cancer or whether smokers tend to sunbathe more than nonsmokers.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

A restaurant in Germany has come up with a novel solution to a new ban on smoking in restaurants. He sawed three holes in the wall so that customers can smoke “outside.” { Spiegel }

related { The deepest hole ever made by humans }

{ Robert Accettura }

The local music community was left stunned by the fatal shooting of a well-known musician who authorities say beat up his girlfriend and then tried to kick in a neighbor’s door in an apparent drunken rage.

{ Dallas News }

Jeffrey Carter Albrecht (June 23, 1973–September 3, 2007) was an American musician best known for his keyboard and guitar work in Edie Brickell & New Bohemians.

In the pre-dawn hours of September 3, 2007, Albrecht was shot and killed. After having some drinks with his girlfriend Ryann Rathbone at a Dallas bar, Albrecht became intoxicated. Rathbone drove him to her house, and they both took their dose of Chantix. A short while later, Albrecht began speaking incoherently, broke a drinking glass on a table, and hit Rathbone several times, something he had never done before. She ran outside, and Albrecht followed. Rathbone re-entered her home and locked the doors behind her.

Albrecht yelled and pounded on her front door in an unsuccessful attempt to reenter her house. He then went into a neighbor’s backyard, apparently mistaking their yard for Rathbone’s. The neighbor and his wife were awakened by the loud pounding and yelling at their back door. The husband told Albrecht to stop, but he did not; the man then claims he fired a “warning shot” through the door. The door was made a thick, opaque glass, and the porch was well-lit. The shot hit the 6′ 5″ Albrecht in the head, and he died at the scene. No charges were filed.

{ wikipedia }

The anti-smoking drug Chantix is to be investigated by the US Food and Drug Administration after reports linked it to suicidal and violent behaviour. It has been on the US market for 18 months.

The case of Carter Albrecht of Dallas, Texas, who was shot dead while trying to break into a house, has focused attention on the drug. Albrecht’s family say he was in a fit of rage at the time, which they link to his use of Chantix.

An autopsy showed that Albrecht had been drinking, and the FDA says that similar factors may explain the reports of violent or suicidal impulses from other users. Chantix is taken by smokers who have quit, and it has been claimed in the drug’s defence that the ensuing nicotine withdrawal symptoms may exacerbate any underlying psychiatric illness. But the FDA also notes that the side effects have been reported by Chantix users who have not stopped smoking and by users with no record of psychiatric illness.

{ New Scientist }

illustration { Niccolo Balce }