All posts tagged: smoke

Want to Smoke Outdoors in Milan? Better Be Far From Other People.

Want to Smoke Outdoors in Milan? Better Be Far From Other People.

Published by Sam

Movies like Fellini’s 1960 film “La Dolce Vita” created an image of Italy as a smokers’ paradise. Cigarettes were the ubiquitous props of glamorous socialites, jaded reporters and just about anyone seated at a cafe. Those days are long gone. A series of laws gradually banned smoking at shared indoor spaces like movie theaters and restaurants. Now, the city of Milan’s center-left government has taken the crackdown one step further, becoming the first major Italian city to ban smoking outside unless the smoker is pretty far from other people. No more huddling around the doors of office buildings. And no more grabbing an after-dinner smoke at the outdoor tables at restaurants. Under the new rules, which went into effect Jan. 1, smoking is banned everywhere except for “isolated areas where it’s possible to respect a distance of at least 33 feet from other people.” “People will smoke a little less, which is good for their health and everybody’s health, and those who don’t smoke will be less exposed to secondhand smoke,” Milan’s deputy mayor, Anna …

Setting fire to a million acres of California could cut smoke by half

Setting fire to a million acres of California could cut smoke by half

Published by skeptic

Firefighters in California during a prescribed burn San Francisco Chronicle via Getty You can fight fire with fire, even in the flammable forests of the western US. According to an analysis of California’s record-breaking 2020 fire season, intentionally burning land can reduce the severity and amount of smoke from wildfires that burn those areas later on, even when accounting for smoke from the intentional fires themselves. “We show that there is a net benefit,” says Makoto Kelp at Stanford University in California. The idea of “prescribed burning” is… Source link

‘The music industry is smoke and mirrors’: how DIY duo the Lovely Eggs are keeping the north weird | Music

‘The music industry is smoke and mirrors’: how DIY duo the Lovely Eggs are keeping the north weird | Music

Published by skeptic

Walking through Lancaster on a sunny spring day, Holly Ross has a theory about her home town and its inhabitants. Once towering over the city was Lancaster Moor hospital, formerly the Lancaster county lunatic asylum, which was home to thousands of patients. “People were sent here from all over the place,” she says. “There was a care in the community programme and people settled locally, so you had this real collection of characters – amazing artists who burned themselves out on acid and ended up here. There was one pub they all used to congregate in, a real bunch of outsiders and freaks – and I use that as a term of endearment because that included us.” For the best part of 20 years, Ross has been making outsider art in the duo the Lovely Eggs with her husband, David Blackwell. The pair play psychedelic punk and infectious garage rock, and – despite playing sizeable UK venues and attracting collaborators such as Iggy Pop – are a fervently DIY operation. They run their own label, …

Italy travel chaos LIVE: Bolzano factory fire sees flights grounded by smoke cloud | World | News

Italy travel chaos LIVE: Bolzano factory fire sees flights grounded by smoke cloud | World | News

Published by skeptic

A huge factory fire in Italy has caused travel chaos with flights grounded due to a massive cloud of smoke seen for miles. The Alpitronic factory, which specializes in manufacturing charging stations for electric cars, in Bolzano is currently ablaze, with terrifying pictures and videos showing bright orange flames engulfing the building. A massive smoke cloud is seen spiralling into the sky and the airspace over Bolzano has been closed as a precaution. Residents are advised to keep windows and doors shut. Firefighters from Bolzano and neighbouring areas, along with technicians from the Environment Agency, are working to control the situation. The nearest airport is Bolzano Airport, a regional airport in the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy.  For all the latest updates, follow our live blog below. Bolzano fire Source link

The right’s Brexit ‘bonfire of red tape’ was just wind and smoke. And even Tories want more regulation now | Polly Toynbee

The right’s Brexit ‘bonfire of red tape’ was just wind and smoke. And even Tories want more regulation now | Polly Toynbee

Published by skeptic

As the sewage-filled waters start to close over the heads of Torydom, their Tufton Street thinktankers carry on like the orchestra on the Titanic. In three grand Westminster houses dwell the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Institute of Economic Affairs, the anti-migration Migration Watch UK, the climate crisis-denying Global Warming Policy Foundation, the anti-EU European Foundation, the Margaret Thatcher-founded Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) and others, all very opaque about their sources of funding. Now they sink together, still playing the old songs painfully out of tune with the country of which they seem to know nothing. I went to watch them on Wednesday in one of their lavish salons, as the CPS launched a report calling yet again for more state-shrinking deregulation. I waited until the very end, but no, there was not one line, not one mention in their report of the great regulatory failures of our time. Not a word about Ofwat letting water companies pour sewage into rivers and seas. Nothing about all the other failed regulators – rail, mail, buses, energy, environment, …

Paul Auster, ‘New York Trilogy,’ ‘Smoke’ writer, dies at 77

Paul Auster, ‘New York Trilogy,’ ‘Smoke’ writer, dies at 77

Published by skeptic

Paul Auster, the bestselling postmodern author, noir novelist and screenwriter behind “Smoke,” “Lulu on the Bridge” and “The Inner Life of Martin Frost,” has died. He was 77. “The New York Trilogy” and “4 3 2 1” author’s death was confirmed Wednesday by his literary representatives at Carol Mann Agency, according to the Associated Press. No details about his death were given and representatives for the agency did not immediately respond Wednesday to The Times’ request for comment. The New York Times reported that Auster died Tuesday evening at his home in Brooklyn from complications of lung cancer. The writer had been diagnosed with cancer in 2022. Auster, who also enjoyed a rich career as a poet and memoirist, became a fixture of the Brooklyn literary scene. He was known for his “metafiction” and for drawing attention to the artifice of storytelling. Although his commercial success in the United States was modest, he was deeply admired abroad and he was awarded several prizes during his prolific career, including the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, …

So, This Is What Actually Happens If You Smoke Or Vape On A Plane

So, This Is What Actually Happens If You Smoke Or Vape On A Plane

Published by skeptic

While smoking and vaping on flights is strictly prohibited, the flight can be an intense ride for people who rely on this habit to get through the day. To the point that they could be tempted to just have a quick smoke in the plane toilet. How harmful can one quick smoke really be? Well, according to one flight attendant, pretty bad, to be honest. What happens if you smoke on a plane Natalie Magee, a first-class flight attendant posted on her TikTok explaining exactly what happens when people take this risk, as it had JUST happened on a flight she was working on. When the pilot called to say that somebody was vaping in the bathroom, an announcement was made that no smoking or vaping was allowed and Magee went to investigate further. She did identify that somebody had definitely vaped in the bathroom and requested that the passenger own up. Unsurprisingly, nobody did. Magee said: “When you smoke or vape in the bathroom [on a flight], and you do not identify yourself, that …

RFK Jr. threatens to challenge TikTok ban: It’s just a ‘smoke screen’

RFK Jr. threatens to challenge TikTok ban: It’s just a ‘smoke screen’

Published by skeptic

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened to challenge a potential TikTok ban Friday, as efforts to block the video app in the U.S. came closer to reality earlier this week. “I’m going to file a lawsuit challenging the TikTok ban on Constitutional grounds,” Kennedy wrote on social media platform X. “Don’t be fooled — the TikTok ban is not about China harvesting your data. That’s a smoke screen.” “Intelligence agencies from lots of countries, especially ours, are harvesting your data from everywhere all the time,” he added. His comments come just days after President Biden signed a $95 billion national security package that includes language to ban TikTok in the U.S. if the app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance, does not sell the app. ByteDance officials said they have no intention of selling the app, despite a potential ban. “Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” the company said in a statement, adding that it “doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok.” A spokesperson for TikTok also said in …

Young girls in UK drink, smoke and vape more than boys, says study | UK News

Young girls in UK drink, smoke and vape more than boys, says study | UK News

Published by skeptic

Young girls in the UK drink, smoke and vape more than boys, a major study suggests. England is also “top of the charts” globally for child alcohol abuse, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) research of 44 countries. In one of the largest studies of its kind, researchers examined data on 280,000 children aged 11, 13 and 15. They found girls in the UK aged 13 and 15 tend to be drinking, smoking and vaping more than boys. And two-fifths of girls in England and Scotland have vaped by age 15, higher than in other countries such as France, Germany and Spain. Researchers also found 30% of 15-year-old girls and 17% of 15-year-old boys in England had vaped in the past 30 days. Again, this was higher than children in several other countries, including Ireland, Canada, Portugal, Spain and Denmark. The study found girls were more likely to have used a vape by 15 than the average for all 44 countries studied – with vaping having now overtaken smoking. Spreaker This content is provided …