"Harry Potter" actor gets ripped for smoking on stage

The guy who plays "Harry Potter" in the movies is playing a stage role in the London production of "Equus," and it just so happens that the role calls for him to smoke a cigarette.

This has caused a world of shit to come down on the thespian's head by the anti-smoking lobby.

"It is regrettable that he is smoking, whatever the circumstances. "He is a role model for young people and if he decided to take up smoking in real life that would be of great concern. Even though it is an act, nicotine is highly addictive and he could find himself hooked."

So said an anti-smoking crusader in London.

The play's producer said that smoking is a key element of a scene in the play and that the actor doesn't even smoke in "real life."

Since art's supposed to reflect life, and since people in real life smoke, we'll side with the artiste on this score.

Smokin' "like cocaine and heroin"

So says a study...

EU Parliament says `To hell with this no-smokin' crap, everybody light up!'

It's kinda like what Barack Obama said about smokin' ... the flesh is weak ...

Times jumps on insula story

We noted a few weeks ago stories about the prune-sized part of the brain called the insula, whose mysteries could hold the key to unlock addictive behavior, including the nasty cigarette habit that kills so many people.

The NY Times has now weighed in on the insula.

The insula also reads body states like hunger and craving and helps push people into reaching for the next sandwich, cigarette or line of cocaine. So insula research offers new ways to think about treating drug addiction, alcoholism, anxiety and eating disorders....

...If it does everything, what exactly is it that it does?

For example, the insula “lights up” in brain scans when people crave drugs, feel pain, anticipate pain, empathize with others, listen to jokes, see disgust on someone’s face, are shunned in a social settings, listen to music, decide not to buy an item, see someone cheat and decide to punish them, and determine degrees of preference while eating chocolate.

Damage to the insula can lead to apathy, loss of libido and an inability to tell fresh food from rotten.

The bottom line, according to Dr. Paulus and others, is that mind and body are integrated in the insula. It provides unprecedented insight into the anatomy of human emotions.

Here's an idea ... instead of our government spending a lot of money to go back to the moon, how 'bout we put that money into figuruing out the insula?

Here's the rest of the NYT story.

Possible new cure for smoking

Dramatically increase your consumption of cigarettes.

That's how Ben Affleck kicked.

SF suburb pushing smoking envelope

Belmont, Calif., may ban smoking in apartment complexes. and the like.

The LA Times reports:

Twenty years ago, a proposal to prohibit smoking in condos and apartments "would have been a radical and crazy idea," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "Today, it's an idea that's gaining growing acceptance, precisely because the science has evolved and changed."

Background:

In the late 1940s, '50s and most of the '60s, people could smoke virtually everywhere they went, with a few minor restrictions related to fire hazards, he said. When smoke was recognized at the very least as an irritant and temporary health hazard, segregated smoking and nonsmoking sections cropped up everywhere, from airplanes to offices.

That was during much of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, he said, a period underscored by the idea that "smokers have rights." Then California banned smoking in restaurants and the workplace, and the boundary for permissible smoking tightened. Suddenly it was not OK to smoke indoors in public places.

When Calabasas voted last year to effectively ban smoking outdoors, the boundary moved again. But the city, Banzhaf said, deliberately chose not to address the smoke that drifts from private home to private home in the close confines of apartment buildings and condos — at least for the time being.

Which brings us to Belmont, "which is taking the lead," he said.

It is unclear just what the City Council will do when presented with the first draft of its new ordinance, whether the anti-smoking fervor on display in November will survive, what kind of history will be made, where the line will be drawn.

Expect lawsuits, eh.
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In Wales, a smoking ban in public places

It's scheduled to take hold the day after April Fool's Day, April 2.

The health minister says violators will be shot on sight -- just kiddin. Here's what he really said:

“Long term exposure to second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer, heart disease and ban respiratory illness among non-smokers.

“The most compelling reason for introducing the as soon as possible is that experts estimate at least 400 non-smokers die each year in Wales as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke.

“We know that many smokers want to quit but find it extremely difficult. There has never been a better time to give up for good when the ban comes into force in April."

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