E-Cigarettes and Useless Laws

There's these things called e-cigarettes, or electronic cigarettes. You may have heard of them, especially if you're a smoker.

What they are, basically, are tiny vaporizers the size (and shape) of a cigarette. They have replaceable filter tips filled with a liquid solution containing nicotine. When you puff on them, they emit nicotine-laced vapor.

Why is this important? There are a few major reasons: water vapor, commonly known as "steam", isn't very likely to damage your lungs when compared with smoke. Also, there's no "tar" (actually plant resin) which causes chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (emphysema, etc) and most importantly, very likely no TSNAs or other carcinogens, so no cancer. This last one is under debate, because the FDA possibly found amounts of carcinogens that couldn't even be measured, probably accidental impurities. Compared to a regular cigarette though, where we can measure them in large amounts, this is sure to be a vast improvement.

They're also cheaper than conventional cigarettes after the initial investment.


So, the smoking health problem is solved.

Haha, just kidding! Nothing is ever allowed to be that simple, especially when there's money at stake! Anti-smoking groups still make money and have to employ people, so of course they hate them, regardless of the lives they may save. Really. They go around issuing things saying that "They are addictive". Well duh. A portable nicotine inhaler is likely to be addictive. It's the "They are addictive... and should be banned." part that freaks me out. Yeah, the FDA was even seizing shipments of them for a while. Last time I checked, it wasn't their job to protect Americans from what could possibly be a very good prevention for cancer.

Here's the *real* big issue with e-cigarettes: You can "smoke" them anywhere, and they look real. There's no second hand smoke, and as of yet, they aren't regulated, because luckily the federal judge told the FDA to bugger off when they wanted e-cigarettes gone.

What does this mean? It means I can walk around the hallways of my college puffing my e-cigarette all I want. And that is a major concern to anti-tobacco groups, and likely many politicians. The concern is something absurd sounding like they don't want people to see other people smoking cigarettes. I don't get it either.

Many smokers at my college have switched to e-cigarettes, and, as not expected at all... I have never seen someone using them inside any building in the college. A few of them even go outside in the Michigan winter to use them. In fact, aside from smoking sections in restaurants and smoke shops, I've never seen anyone using an e-cigarette inside. I never do it either, or if I do, I'll run off to a bathroom stall (relax. It's water vapor. It evaporates nearly instantly and there are only trace amounts of nicotine exhaled - I could be smoking one right next to you and you'd probably never even know if you didn't look).

Because what many lawmakers don't understand is that something called "personal responsibility" exists. People who smoke e-cigarettes are, by and large, smart enough to know not to walk around their local public places smoking them in plain view, because they know people don't want to see that, or might not understand what they are. They have, by and large, *regulated themselves* thus far, and are really further proof that we don't need a government constantly breathing down our necks with more and more pointless laws.

Healthcare: A Sad State...

...for America when the most unbiased news I can get on TV is from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

Fox News tells me they want to have abortions everywhere and "death panels", which already exist to some extent. It also marks the first time the Republicans have accused the Democrats of trying to save money. So, they're probably lying.

The more liberal news networks like ABC and MSNBC tell me it will basically end all problems, ever. Of course, it really won't. Making the insurance companies go bankrupt is a bad idea in a free market economy. Of course, last I heard, they liked it. Which makes me nervous. And means they're probably lying.

CNN just keeps talking about Twitter. No clue what that's about. Don't really care if they're lying, or why I would care what @deesenuts69's opinion of healthcare reform is.

Now I hear they want to get rid of HSA plans. That's bad for me. I rather like HSA plans.

They want to force me to have health insurance. I don't know why I wouldn't, but forcing people to do stuff is the opposite of freedom. This I know for sure. Even though I always wear my seatbelt, I think it's absolutely absurd to have a country that's "the most free in the world" that forces people to wear seatbelts via the law. Freedom is freedom. Forcing people to do stuff is not freedom. I don't understand the trouble with this concept. It seems very simple to me... perhaps I'm insane. So it goes.

The Cato Institute knows what to do, of course. Back before I even read this, I was thinking "You can probably solve these problems via competition in a free market." My idea was to give tax cuts to emerging or existing insurance companies and healthcare clinics, heck - even hospitals, as long as they manage to reduce the cost of care or monthly premiums without sacrificing care every year.

Cato has a better idea. I like it. It's short, it's simple, it's intelligent and will likely work. Check it out.

The Libertarian Party and Open Source

Open source software is very simple. It often takes nothing but time and knowledge to do computer programming. Let's say I do it as a hobby, and want to make a program... just for fun. I make my program. Maybe it's a simple "book collection manager" so I can quickly locate any book on my bookshelf, like a tiny library catalog.

Now, I could sell that. But that would be one heck of a process, and I'm a programmer, not a business man! So, I just say "I'll give it away to anyone who wants to use it, and even let them make changes." I made this for myself, basically, and have no interest of going through the hard work to sell it, but don't want it just sitting around doing nothing. So, I throw it up on my site and let people download it and change it as much as they want. The popular operating system Linux is just this - a guy named Linus Torvalds made an operating system (like Windows or Mac) just for fun in 1991, threw it up on the Internet, and let people make changes. Now it's the third largest OS worldwide, and a major competitor to Windows and Mac, especially for servers. And it's all completely free.

Some have likened this to Communism or Socialism, but obviously being a Libertarian, I think they're completely wrong. In my eyes, Libertarianism and the Open Source movement are very similar and work wonderfully with each other.


How is that? It's simple. They're both about one thing: Freedom. "Free software" isn't supposed to mean "free as in free beer". It means "free as in free speech," even though very often, both are true. Communism would be if I were forced to make things for free, and that would be wrong. However, if I choose to make things for free, that is my personal choice, and thus is all about personal liberty.

It also introduces fierce competition to the market, which is always good. If you have a guy making great software for free, it really places pressure on the guys who are charging money to deliver quality products. I have no issue with paying for software I need, but it better be better than stuff I can get for free!

Open source programming is also about expression. To me with my scientific and mathematical mind, it's my form of art. This is why it's about free speech. When I make a website for free, as I often do, sometimes I'll use Joomla, Drupal, Blogger, or Wordpress because I think it would be better suited... but sometimes I do it in Emacs (a text editor), and program each of the thousands of lines by hand. I take great pride in my work, and I enjoy it. Nothing makes me happier than spending a few weeks programming to be rewarded by a flawless, bug-free program that operates like a well-oiled and expertly-engineered machine. When I post it to the Internet, it's like hanging a masterpiece in an art gallery. People will see this. They'll see my name on it, they'll see it run well. They'll be able to "pop the hood" - open it up and look at the source code and see how clean it really is, and either be pleased, or make suggestions on how to make it run even better. While, to be quite honest, it is often an ego thing, it can benefit me in life as well. You never know - Google may see it and love what they see and decide they need a new programmer one day! =D

That is why, to me, there is nothing that says "personal liberty" more than programming stuff for fun, and just giving it away, because I can.

OpenMoko: Surprisingly Stable (Kind Of)

So, I got my OpenMoko Neo Freerunner in the mail a few days ago. At first I thought it was a nightmare. Tonight, when I first sat down and *truly* tinkered with it, I found it was actually a lot more stable and well-developed than I thought.

You see, the issue with it isn't that it suffers from lack of packages, it's that there's very little documentation, and most of the existent documentation is rather outdated.

The community, while it seems to love cranking out programs, isn't so much for advertising them. So, while I'm looking through all of Google trying to find the screen rotate program, it simply already exists in the opkg repository (much like Debian/Ubuntu's apt-get) and is quite simple to use.

Also, looking through it, though I'm not an uber programmer, I can certainly tell I'm going to have wonderful fun programming for this thing -- it's an embedded programmer's wet dream. No, really. Thousands of libraries, compilers on the phone itself... everything but EMACS. (have I found my first porting project? =-O )

P.S. I'm saying it's easy for me to use with a decade of Linux experience. I'm not saying you should run out and buy this to replace your iPhone. Unless you *really* know your way around a Linux command line, you'll be totally lost with this phone.

P.P.S. "opkg install omnewrotate" in case you were wondering. Click the rotate icon on the main menu. Turn it any direction you freaking wish and watch the rotation! (accelerometer-based, like the iPhone) A bit choppy, but not at all bad!!!

The Shrinks and the Pineal Gland

The following is a bit of fiction concerning a very boring event where I walked into the wrong class, turned around, and walked back out. I decided to make it better...


I write this from my battle-station. No place is safe. Yes, that's right, they're after me... I know it's true.

The trouble all started when I was on my way to school, to go to history class. I have a long history of taking history classes. My first semester, I took them with my faithful Canadian buddy, whose name I can't remember. The professor would dress up in outrageous costumes and try to tell us that the Ancient Egyptians didn't have Levi or Reebok. The year following, I took a history class with my friend Alex. This class was a bit different; it was much more serious. Gone were the pot-heads from this class. This class accepted only the finest. Scotch, bourbon, and opiates stronger than Vicodin were the standard fare among the House of Lords students. A much more calm experience, with occasional rumors of "Quite so, quite so, old bean!" from the back of the class room. The nobility of the community college.

Naturally looking to progress my status among this noble class of the community college, this semester I've taken yet another historical community college class. This one had something to do with movies. Harmless enough, it would seem. After a long day of painting, I set out into the usual House of Lords room, and sat down.

Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong.

I looked around at the "nobility" of the class. They didn't seem quite nobby at all! Binders, books, and laptops were everywhere. But that wasn't what unsettled me. It was their eyes!

That's right, their eyes. You could see the whites clearly. The pupils were neither contracted nor dilated. No drunken slurs, no aroma of fine whiskeys. The monsters-in-training wore mostly brand names such as "Hollister" with few stains. They were quiet, but class had not started yet. No murmurs of "Oh old bean, you could think Regan was the best present, but surely you cannot believe he truly contests with Teddy Roosevelt?"

Where was I? Who were these monsters? I glanced at my phone to make sure the title wasn't something sickening like "Women in History", where the young hip female professor tried to tell us that women were more than just mattresses and baby-making tools for most of history*. No, it was still "History Goes to the Movies." In classroom... wait, I-Building? The House of Lords meets in N-building! What treachery is this!?

I carefully lean over to the kid next to me, ready for him to try to bite. His glasses said DKNY, some incomprehensible code. Probably a raver. His hair was expertly manicured, instead of 'just let grow until my girlfriend/mom makes me cut it.'

"Pssst!"

The monster looks at me strangely.

"Hey, over here!" I whisper

"Yes?" he responds in normal tone, obviously not afraid of waking the monsters from their pre-ritual meditation

"Quiet! You'll wake them! What class is this?" I whisper

"Um. Psychology." he said, backing away slowly.

Psychology! I had imagined the worst, but not this bad! I quickly grabbed my stuff and bolted to the door, just barely managing to roll out while shouting "YOU'LL NEVER GET MY PINEAL GLAND!!!"


Some time later I was able to locate the right class room. I was early, as is my nature**. Some of the students were already here, milling about aimlessly with confused looks. I walked up to the most-confused looking student, and said "History?" he looked at me briefly, giggled, then stared at the Pepsi machine, wiping his face with his palms as he was drawn to the blue light like a fly to a fly zapper. He proceeded to try to press the Mountain Dew button without remembering to insert cash.

Ah, home. This is the expected response. The girls' skirts looked home-made... actually, a lot of the clothing did. I wasn't the only one here who owned a Phrygian cap. This group was not discouraged when people asked why they were dressed like yard gnomes.

Eventually I sunk into the opium-den like feeling of a good history class. People so far removed from reality, yet they all imagined they could point you in the right direction if you asked, as long as you gave them several meals to argue about which direction, exactly, that was.

I thought it was all over, until today. I didn't think the shrinks-in-training would follow me. But then I got this message:

Michelle: u walked into my class then left
Michelle: it was weird lol

Dammit... they're on to me! The monsters have had their taste of human Pineal gland, and they want MORE! I've had to flee to an undisclosed location. I think they're tracking me down as we speak. They could be here any minute... but I have plans if that happens.

I'll keep everyone posted as the story unfolds.

From my maximum security battle station somewhere in Michigan, this is Paul Reece XLII, signing off until next time.

________________
* I'm not saying this is a good thing, I'm just saying it's pretty close to the truth. And a lot of early feminists were freaking insane and liked to throw themselves in front of horses in Derbies. Or starve themselves. Or get knocked up every week so they couldn't be thrown in jail after they blew up post offices. Luckily, some of these insane feminazis had sisters who were sane... which lead to women's rights. By building a school and showing what women could accomplish. No, really. See Pankhurst family, etc.
** That's what she said! Amirite? Oh, fist pound!

OpenMoko Phone and Grov Snus

Exciting developments today!

First of all, my roll of Grov snus from SnusCentral.com arrived (Not to be confused with SnusCentral.org, an excellent community site and counterpart to their on-line store)



What is snus? In short, snus is a smokeless, spitless tobacco you use. Put it under your upper lip and forget about it. You'll be pumped full of nicotine in no time. Yeah, nicotine is evilbadscary, but it doesn't kill many people -- that's the tar (actually plant resin, but called tar) from the cigarettes full of carcinogenic nitrosamines that cause cancer.

But snus must cause oral cancer! Well, no, not really. It is true that there are trace levels of tobacco-specific carcinogenic nitrosamines (TSNAs) in snus, and much higher levels in American chewing tobacco/dip, but even with dip, your chances of getting oral cancer are about 8 times higher with cigarettes than with any kind of chewing tobacco. SnusCentral.org has way more information.

In short, it's not perfect. It's just way less deadly.


In other news, I ordered the OpenMoko Neo Freerunner phone! Yeah! This nifty little gadget does whatever I want it to do. Except make phone calls, probably. You see, Verizon (my carrier) is CDMA, OpenMoko only supports GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile, the rest of the world, etc). Did I know this when I bought it? Yes. I plan on using it as a PDA mostly.



If I really want to, I can just use prepaid T-Mobile on it. I talk on the phone about 20 minutes a month, and that's a *lot* for me. Link it up with my Google Voice account to handle text messaging. Done.

I can also use it as a wireless VoIP phone. I do have an Asterisk server chilling out in my kitchen after all. It's mostly just a PDA/dev toy for me. Those of you interested in being geeks should totally check it out; it's awesome!

Forgot to say Hello

Oh yeah, in case you didn't notice, I have a blog again.

Some of you are probably asking "what happened to the old one you hand-made and hosted yourself?"

I didn't like it. So, I trashed it. It probably still exists somewhere as a SQL dump, but -to be completely honest-, it was simply too dangerous to have around. I would often blog about controversial issues, call certain software companies colorful names, etc.

One thing I'm learning about the Internet as I get older is that there's a reason everyone runs around anonymous. You say something as a joke, people get all butthurt offended and threaten to call the police on you for simply discussing something that is no more than a gray area, legally.

This poses problems when you're using your real name. Yes, the court will throw these cases out. And yes, this has never happened to me. But why go through all the trouble in the first place? So, this blog is the new and improved freaking boring "politically correct" version of the last one.

Please try to enjoy.