Bruno Mars Is Smoking In ‘Flaunt’ Magazine

Hope you’re not tired of looking at Bruno Mars‘ beautiful face because the pop star isn’t just InStyle’s “Man Of Style”, he’s also on the cover of Flaunt magazine. The black and white pictorial, photographed by Hunter & Gatti, portrays the Unorthodox Jukebox crooner like a total boss, smoking cigarettes, making it rain, setting money on fire and even chillin’ with a beautiful babe hanging around his neck. In the article, Bruno is described as the hypothetical offspring of James Brown and Prince. We wonder what the late Father Of Soul and The Purple One would have to say about that.

Why are men and women smoking cigarettes while serving in the military?

Reporter: "So you were in WWII and you smoked? When did you actually start smoking?"

CDR Minnich: "I served in WWII, at the end, aboard the U.S.S. Pine Island (AV12) in Antarctica, in 1946. I started smoking before I joined the Navy at age 17. At enlistment, I was up to about half a pack a day - they were Camels. In Hawaii, around 1951 - 1952, I quit cold turkey, mainly because I was on the swim team and going to the gym. In 1955, though, I began again, and increased how many I smoked due to my stressful job in engineering - running the plant on the ship. Over time, I was on three different destroyers, and got up to smoking two packs a day."

Reporter: "And how about when you were in Korea and Vietnam?"

CDR Minnich: "I was in Korea around 1950, on a ship headed to the Philippines. I got stationed at the American Embassy. I was smoking a pack a day then - Camels, no filters. I was then stationedon USS Genesee, a gas tanker, which had a crew of about 80, of whom at least 60 percent smoked, and they were all pack-a-day smokers. Smoking was never allowed on deck, only inside. I was commissioned (as officer) in 1955.

I quit smoking in 1963 in Washington, D.C., while on shore duty. At that time I was smoking two and a half packs a day, but I quit cold turkey. After that, I never smoked again."

Reporter: "What about smoking on the ship and on land, isn't it a hazard that would give away position, from the heat, the smoke, the light from the lit end?"

CDR Minnich: "The Navy has what is called a 'smoking lamp,' which signifies when the crew can smoke and when they cannot.

Reporter: "How do the military get their cigarettes?"

CDR Minnich: "Oh, well, cigarettes are pretty easy to come by, I mean, they're at the bases, at ports and in towns, where they were pretty cheap, and just about everywhere."

UK launches graphic anti-smoking ad

That’s how the United Kingdom’s chief medical officer, Prof. Dame Sally Davies, describes a graphic new anti-smoking ad campaign launched by the UK's Department of Health.
The new ads, which depict a tumor growing on a cigarette, are generating significant attention in the UK and around the world.  The ads aim at motivating smokers to quit by reminding them that cigarette smoking causes mutations that lead to cancer.

Why e-cigarettes should be allowed in the office

Soon the few people left in civilized society who still smoke will be stubbing out their last gaspers and resolving to quit. Some of them may turn instead to e-cigarettes, those funny little white cylinders of plastic and metal, which contain liquid nicotine and are being sold in ever greater quantity.

One of the great advantages of these things is that it’s perfectly legal to puff away at work. As you can’t actually light them, they don’t count as smoking. And as all they emit is a little water vapour, they aren’t even antisocial.

Yet, increasingly companies are taking the very regrettable step of banning them. Some say they are a fire risk or that they may be harmful, but the main reason seems to be that they look too like the real thing. A spokeswoman from the British Medical Association recently complained that they set the wrong example and they renormalize the idea of smoking in offices just when everyone had succeeded in making it seem freakish.

It is for that very reason - the similarity to a real cigarette and the way they normalize the idea of smoking at work - that I’m strongly in favour of people puffing away on them in the office.

Smoking was the most reliable and most powerful way of bonding that anyone has yet found, according to The Globe and Mail. The simple act of lighting someone else’s cigarette, of offering a pack around or chatting for just the time it takes to smoke one created a good feeling that lasted about as long as the tar sits in your lungs.

Cigarette stunt hero Rajinikanth asks fans to quit smoking

Tamil cinema icon Rajinikanth, whose inimitable style of popping a cigarette into his mouth earned him many youth fans, has urged them to kick the habit, according to Firstpost. Addressing a gathering of his fans to mark his birthday, he said his illness had been caused by smoking, but admitted that he was unable to give it up. "I haven't quit smoking, but you should do so," he said, adding he recovered from his kidney ailment, involving extensive medical treatment, only by God's grace and the prayers of his fans. Here's a look at some of Rajinikanth's iconic cigarette stunts in some of his movies.

Egypt announces tax hikes, hits alcohol and tobacco hardest

As part of Egypt’s agreement for a $4.8 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the country was forced to implement a series of tax hikes. Surprising most everyone in the country on Sunday, less than a week ahead of a constitutional referendum, the government announced a series of tax hikes across the board, from alcohol and tobacco to gas and real estate.

The move is unlikely to sit well with protesters continuing to march against President Mohamed Morsi, but are part of agreed upon obligations that came with the IMF loan agreement.

When a group of waiters at a local cafe in Cairo heard the news, they told Bikyamasr.com frankly, “Morsi is going to kill us.”

“We are a poor people, why do this to us?” asked Hamdy, 32.

According to the new taxes, some of the increases are as follows:

Cigarettes: 50 percent hike on selling price to consumers in addition to a 250 Egyptian pound rise in packaging for imported cigarettes.
Beer: 200 percent increase, with a minimum of 400 pounds on liters.
Alcohol: 150 percent rise on beverages with a minimum of 15 pounds on the liter.
Tobacco: 150 percent tax on local importer.
Carbonated water: 25 percent
Advertising: 10 percent tax on all advertising, 15 percent on the declaration of one million pounds and a 25 percent tax on ads more than 25 million pounds.
Ads pertaining to a “public service” are exempt from this tax, including warning ads, job advertisements and missing persons ads.
Nightclubs, cinemas, restaurants and other establishments will be be taxed a percent of their value, the government statement said.
Butcher shops will have a 100 pound tax annually.
All permits will be charged a tax going forward.
Electricity: 3 piasters per every kilowatt of electricity used.
Gas: 6 piasters on every cubic meter of gas consumption in non-industrial purposes.
Gas for industrial use: 25 piaster increase on the cubic meter; three pounds per ton of gas consumption and butane gas.
Real Estate: 10 percent of the annual rental value of the property, after excluding 30 percent of the value for housing purposes and 32 percent for non-housing purposes.
Owners of flats that have a rental value of less than 24,000 pounds annually can exempt one location from the tax.
Stock market and capital gains will also see a 10 percent tax.

Is Connecticut helping its smokers quit?

Though Connecticut has made some strides in funding measures that help smokers quit, there's still a lot of work to be done.

That's according to the American Lung Association's report "Helping Smokers Quit: Tobacco Cessation Coverage 2012," released Monday.

The report provides a comprehensive review of each state's tobacco cessation coverage and an up-to-date look at federal coverage and requirements under the Affordable Care Act.

According to the lung association, not only is smoking dangerous for your health, it's also costly. The association estimates that annual costs of tobacco use in the U.S. are $193 billion, and argues that providing comprehensive coverage of messages that help people quit smoking is crucial to saving lives and dollars.

The report shows that only two states, Indiana and Massachusetts, provide comprehensive cessation coverage through  Medicaid and four states -- Illinois, New Mexico, North Dakota and Rhode Island -- provide comprehensive coverage through state employee health plans.

Though Connecticut is faring better than some states -- in Alabama and Georgia, Medicaid doesn't cover smoking cessation costs at all -- the state can do better, said Michelle Marichal, acting director of health education and public policy for the American Lung Association in Connecticut, according to ctpost.com.

Marichal said Connecticut was one of two states to expand its Medicaid coverage of cessation in 2012, adding coverage of all seven tobacco cessation medications and individual counseling. "We are happy to say that, for the first time, Medicaid cessation coverage in the state is almost comprehensive and has few barriers," she said.