We know today that smoking tobacco leads to serious health effects. It is the the greatest cause of preventable death globally, and killed at least a hundred million deaths in the 20th century. Current smokers are estimated to die an average of 10 years earlier than non-smokers. Tobacco contains 70 known carcinogens, plus nicotine, which is a highly addictive psychoactive drug. As early as the 1700, it was generally known that tobacco caused cancer. But tobacco companies succeeded in selling their product to the public. I heard that China still smokes a lot, so I asked Google AI: Despite a slight decline in the percentage of individual smokers, overall cigarette consumption in China has surged by 39% over the past two decades . The country now accounts for nearly half of the world's total cigarette consumption , selling approximately 2.4 trillion cigarettes annually. [ 1 , 2 ] The rising trend in cigarette sales and consumption is driven by a combination of institutional, economi...

Before I get into the topic of the day, plus our current cruise activities, a few newsworthy topics of the day This article indicates that the  annual joke of today, April 1 in the media, began only in 1957 when the BBC claimed  that spaghetti trees in southern Switzerland near the Italian border had reached harvest season. I recall being in Japan on numerous first of Aprils. Japan Times  usually has a front-page April Fool's Joke.  Not sure about today.  Google AI couldn't find anything. However  Tokyo Paladin  with Jake Adelstein  published an article yesterday ( March 31 ) about new bicycle laws to be enforced from today. First you wonder if this is one of those spoofs. Then you realize this could really be true. Under any circumstances, though, very funny and worth your while to  read the entire article . Has to do with 113 new ways to break the law on a bicycle. Many say the Japanese are wise, and their wisdom as a collective decision co...