Tobacco Ban for Minors

The law for the possession of tobacco and for the use of it for minors are kind of flawed but are now fixed. The law stated that the a minor was not allowed to buy or use tobacco but the possession of it was tolerated by the law. Not any more. The new law states that for anyone under the age of 19, they are not allowed to buy, posses or use tobacco. Wether it is chewing tobacco or a regular cigarette it is now illegal.

In my opinion this is great. I think that this actually should have been done a long time ago because now there are so many kids that are hooked to these products that it is actually pretty sad. This was certainly a major decision but an important one at the same time. Ontario has made the right decision with this. They have now matched the  alcohol laws in Ontario because the law for alcohol has also been no buying, no use and no possession. Since tobacco is a very addictive substance, it is always best to keep it away from minors as they can get addicted to it pretty easily. It can even have bad effect on the friends of these smoking minors, maybe the friend does not want to smoke, but still hangs around the other guy while he is smoking. This can have serious second hand smoke effects to the other person hanging around the smoker friend. Again in my opinion, I think that smoking is bad for everyone and that minors should never let themselves get there hands on it and this law is helping to do that.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Complete+tobacco+minors+wins+support/3635675/story.html

Flying Humvee's?

The AAI has landed a contract to start studies into the feasibility that flying Humvee's may soon become a reality to troops in battle. Now why would we wand our army's hummer's to fly? Why would any army wan tot invest in flying hummer's? This project is being called the Transforming Flying Humvee Project and would be used to transport wounded or killed soldiers or to transport light things such as weapons for the soldiers. The downside to all of this is a pretty big one and that is that these flying trucks will have little to no armor and are basically asking to be hit by any type of rocket or RPG. The gas tanks will also be in the planes wings just as in commercial aircrafts so if it hit by anything that could spark such as a bullet or worse, it would just catch fire.

I think that this is a really bad idea and that they shouldn't be investing money in the research of flying Humvee's but instead spending money on research for the vehicles that can already fly such as helicopters and planes and make them safer for our troops instead of putting them in the sky in a lightly armored vehicle that could be easily be blown out of the sky by even an assault rifle.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/flying-humvee-a-step-closer-to-reality-still-seems-like-a-reall/

HP's New CEO

After a dramatic exit by HP's former CEO Mark Hurd because of his expense account irregularities, a new CEO had to be named for HP. Léo Apotheker was named the new CEO of the giant company.


I'm obviously not surprised that this happened because the company needed a new CEO and Léo Apotheker seemed the best man to step up to the plate.


http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/hp-names-leo-apotheker-new-ceo-and-president-of-hp/

Apple Dominates Technology News

A study was run by the Pew Research Center. They were running a project for 

excellence in journaling and what they found was that Apple dominates tech news with 15.1 percent of tech articles being related to Apple and in second was Google with 11.4 percent and Microsoft had a mere 3 percent. The reason is that Apple is very effective at getting a journalists attention. People on rumor sites are also responsible for this as they build up a lot of anticipation for what the next Apple product will be. Apple also has a very public way of releasing new products by holding keynote speeches at least 3-4 times a year. Apple also had the number 2 and number 4 most talked about tech story with the iPhone 4 at #2 with 6.4 percent coverage in the news and the iPad at #4 with 4.6 percent of coverage in the news. Even though Microsoft had a big release of Windows 7 this year it only had one half of 1 percent of all coverage.

Apple has been in the tech industry for quite a while now and with every new Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and other things such as new software are always in the technology news on websites, radio and T.V. Sometimes a new release will even cause endless lines to form outside of an Apple store just so that you can be the first one to ever own an iPhone (for example). It is really unbelievable that so many people line up for such a small thing that is made to look really big.

U.S Aid Workers Held in Afghanistan

Four aid workers that were working in Afghanistan for the United States Agency for International Development were all kidnapped by armed men on one of the country's major highways on Sunday according to officials. It was 1 British woman and 3 Afghan men and they were stopped and then taken away at the gunpoint.The Taliban or the Hezb-e-Islami fighters are active in the are and are the main suspects for this incident. The four also did not coordinate their trips with the Afghan national security forces. This is the third kidnapping of aid workers in Afghanistan in the province of Kunar this year and with all three situations, the people worked for non-profit organizations and were released after negotiations with the kidnappers.

I think this is disheartening as is every kidnapping or killing that happens in Afghanistan. They are trying to restore peace within the country and they are are stopped by the people that are causing the mayhem and it is a very bad situation. We can only hope and pray that the 4 people who were kidnapped will be let free.

Consumer Satisfaction is Better than Ever With Their Computers

Consumers are happier than they have ever been with their computers! The American customer satisfaction index led a survey saying that for the past 12 months, 78 out of 100 people have been satisfied with their computers, up three points from last year. Apple is also still carrying it's 7 year streak of being the computer that makes consumers the happiest earning in the sub-category of computers, 86 out of 100 points and dominating in that respect. Other windows based computer makers such as Dell, HP and Compaq were also up in points.

I'm not to surprised by this story because every year there is always something new, better and more reliable in the computer and technology industry. The fact that Apple is making customers the happiest also doesn't surprise me, because they sold over 3.5 million Mac's, a 33% increase from last year and Mac's are the more reliable computer. Apple also has been saying that most of the people that go to buy a Mac computer are buying their first Mac. These reports are in fact very impressive.

New Way of Upgrading Processors

There have been reported sightings at some Best Buy stores of an Intel upgrade card that acts as an upgrade for CPU's. It works as if you enter a cheat into a game to unlock something that is already there. Basically if you buy a mid to low range CPU because of the price and realize that it is not enough power for the work that they are doing and so they don't need to buy a brand new processor because by entering in the code on the card into the computer it essentially unlocks more power from the CPU.

I personally think that this is a pretty good idea especially for people who may have older systems with less processing power can just buy this card and upgrade there CPU instead of buying a brand new CPU then realizing it isn't compatible with the rest of your system and then having to buy a whole new system.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/blog/hardware/intel-testing-coded-processor-upgrades/

Cell Phones in Class Says McGuinty

Today Dalton McGuinty said that Ontario schools should allow student to use there handheld devices in class as a form of education. They are a major distraction says the Premier but he says that there is a right way to use them in the classroom. Student are required to shut off cell phones during class or at least set them to silent but the Ontario school board is considering them as a use to take down notes. The opposition however does not agree with this and some have even said that they have kids and they are distracted enough, so why ad another distraction?

I do not think that allowing the use of cell phones should be allowed in class. This would just allow a student to text or surf the web on his/her phone without the worry of getting caught by the teacher. It would also be harder for a teacher to see what exactly the student is doing on the phone because the screens on phones are considerably smaller than those of computers. Also, why use cell phones to take notes? Aren't computers enough to do the job, and even if they are, student still get distracted and surf the web or play games during class anyways. So why give the students another distraction?

Smokeless Tobacco - Not Safer

The AHA (American Heart Association) have released a policy statement about the safety of smokeless tobacco such as snuff or chewing tobacco and they have said that it is not the right way to cut the habit of regular smoking. Using Products such as snuff or chewing tobacco are harmful and addictive, and are not safer than regular smoking products. The Association also says that using these products can not only cause you to become addicted to nicotine, but it may also increase the risk of the person having a stroke, a fatal heart attack or developing certain types of cancers. The AHA also pointed out that the use of these products are increasing among teen boys that are seeking a "nicotine buzz". The use of these products has never been very prominent in Canada but there is a growing concern that it may start to be. Even young people that didn't smoke had turned to smokeless tobacco as an alternative. The safest way however of helping people who are addicted to any tobacco related product is to get them nicotine replacements and pharmaceutical therapies with the addition of counseling and support groups.

I think that this is great that this was released however, I think that this should have been released a long time ago and I think that most people knew about this anyways prior to the release of this package, just as they knew that smoking any sort of tobacco is bad. As for the rise in the teen boys who have used smokeless tobacco this should not happen and the police and doctors should be cracking down on this becase if it not healthy for a 45 year old man to smoke, than it oubviously isn't healthy for a 15 year old teen to smoke or chew. The doctors should take some sort of sample from the body whereby they would be able to see if the teen has been using tobacco products or not.