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Hold the cheese is one thing, hold the anus is another -AsianMartin has found some interesting new items on the McDonald’s menu in Atlanta. I’ll not ask a tasteless question, butt I’d rather go hungry, thank you.

March 14th (3/14) is Pi Day, and  Neatorama are marking the occasion by offering a Mmm … Pi t-shirt for the princely sum of $9.95. You, too, can look like a nerd … oops, mathematician.

Disclosure: As I’ve mentioned before, I have a serious allergy to cigarette smoke that can result in anaphylactic shock. For this reason, I may be a little more sensitive than most people to health care warnings about nicotine.

Scientists in Berkeley, California have recently published results of a study warning of further dangers from cigarette smoking.

The dangers of mainstream and secondhand tobacco smoke have been well documented as a cause of cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, pulmonary disease and birth defects. Only recently, however, has the general public been made aware of the threats posed by third-hand smoke.

Hugo Destaillats of the Indoor Environment Department at Berkeley Lab says, The burning of tobacco releases nicotine in the form of a vapor that adsorbs strongly onto indoor surfaces, such as walls, floors, carpeting, drapes and furniture. Nicotine can persist on those materials for days, weeks and even months. Our study shows that when this residual nicotine reacts with ambient nitrous acid it forms carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines or TSNAs. TSNAs are among the most broadly acting and potent carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke.

Basically smoker’s clothes and skin become coated with nicotine, which will then react with nitrous acid floating inside a building and produce a coating of hazardous TSNA.

Lara Gundel of the Berkeley Lab says,

Smoking outside is better than smoking indoors but nicotine residues will stick to a smoker’s skin and clothing. Those residues follow a smoker back inside and get spread everywhere. The biggest risk is to young children. Dermal uptake of the nicotine through a child’s skin is likely to occur when the smoker returns and if nitrous acid is in the air, which it usually is, then TSNAs will be formed.

The authors of the paper suggest that only 100 percent smoke free environments in public places can be acceptably healthy. In the case of buildings where substantial smoking has occurred in the past, they recommend that the carpets, walls, furniture and ceilings be replaced.

Read the full Press Release here.

I’ve had another excellent idea (!) and launched yet another WordPress blog. This one is called Grey Brits and is a celebration of British connections in Grey County, Ontario, Canada.

I’ll be posting stuff under the broad headings of food, drink, motoring, music, and sports, with anything not covered in those headings being classed as The Cultural Glue that binds everything together.

I know, I’ve always preached against the whole verbal diarrhoea aspect of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but I have to confess to signing up for both as a marketing tool for Jam Jar News. Have I no integrity?

You can follow on         or    

Patrick McGoohan has died in Los Angeles, at 80.
Best known as Six in The Prisoner, he previously starred in Danger Man. In 1995 he played the part of King Edward Longshanks in the Mel Gibson film Braveheart.

I am not a number.
I am a free man.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Canada great. Not to imply that Canada is necessarily greater than any other country. Please know this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

Sometimes the machines strike back and provide a chuckle in the midst of a busy day … the last page of a set of shipping documents was chewed up by the sending fax machine, it was the Straight Bill of Lading!

Thanks for bringing your work home, Jan.

The Telegraph reports that agreement was reached after talks between the drivers’ union and Shell’s suppliers.

Latest figures suggest that nearly 600 petrol stations ran dry before deliveries were resumed after the four day strike.

One can only hope that the record prices will be dropping quickly.

BBC News reports that the Foxhayes petrol station at Exwick, near Exeter, has been charging £1.99 a litre for both petrol and diesel in an attempt to conserve stocks.

The combination of a strike by Shell tanker drivers disrupting deliveries and panic buying by drivers has resulted in many petrol stations completely running out of fuel, leading to the high prices.

Even at the favourable current exchange rates, that translates to CDN$3.99 a litre which makes the CDN$1.35 being asked by my local garage today sound like a bargain!