FDA and e-cigarettes: Nicotine addiction must not be the norm

Since 2010, the Food and Drug Administration has been debating how to regulate the sale of e-cigarettes. The FDA should hurry up. These battery-powered devices, which heat a nicotine solution and create an inhalable vapor, are exploding in popularity ? driven mostly by a tobacco industry in search of new addicts.

Addiction itself does lie at the heart of the FDA?s dilemma about regulating e-cigarettes. Should the agency assume that millions of Americans choose to be nicotine addicts, with the federal role simply to make the use of electronic cigarettes as safe as possible? Or should the FDA see this powerful addiction as inherently wrong, both for individuals and society, with the government helping people avoid or overcome it?

Several countries already ban the sale of e-cigarettes, a wise course for the FDA. They see the electronic devices as delivering a drug with no use, even if it does not have all the effects of regular smoking. Indeed, the tobacco industry does not claim e-cigarettes are a temporary tool for ending tobacco addiction. Most likely, e-cigarettes are being heavily promoted to attract people to take up smoking. Yearly sales of e-cigarettes are already approaching $1 billion.

Any benefit of e-cigarettes remains unproven while a few toxins have been found in the device?s vapors. At least three American cities ban their use indoors. And, according to one study, quitting e-cigarettes may be as difficult as for tobacco smoking.

In taking any action, the FDA must assume people do not want to become addicts to nicotine. Government already takes that approach inherently with increasing restrictions on the sale and use of tobacco products. The result has been a welcome decline in public smoking and smoking in general. People tempted to take up smoking now face difficult choices ? in costs, inconvenience, and social stigma.

The opposite approach of tolerance toward e-cigarettes would be similar to the way states, once faced with criminal activities associated with illegal gambling, decided that people everywhere want to gamble and government might as well join in by offering lotteries. Now millions of mainly poor people can?t get enough of this daily gambling fix. And states are addicted to the revenues.

Simply curbing the sale of e-cigarettes to minors should not be the FDA?s final decision. The agency, and indeed much of government, can help persuade people that nicotine addiction is not ?cool? and can be easily avoidable. The agency should do more than prevent harm. It can also assert that each individual has a right to be free of addiction.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-e-cigarettes-nicotine-addiction-must-not-norm-120438785.html

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How to Network at an Event - Smart Business Revolution

Networking at in-person events like conferences and cocktail parties is one of the most challenging of all types of networking.

If you are shy or introverted, then going out and networking at in-person events may be even more difficult for you.

You may even hate face-to-face networking events. OK, that?s fine. Unfortunately though, even if you hate in-person networking, that doesn?t mean you get a free pass.

I?d love to tell you in today?s social media-fixated culture, you can simply give up on in-person networking events, but that would be a lie. In fact, old fashioned, face-to-face networking is one of the best activities you can engage in for your career or your business, hands down.

But there is good news. The best way to overcome the many challenges of face-to-face networking is to have a plan for how to network in advance.

Without a plan, you will likely waste a lot of time, or the experience will be not much fun. The good news is it?s very easy to develop a plan for how to network at an event that you can use repeatedly.

Here are 8 tips for how to network at an event:

1. Have a positive attitude

The first, and most important, step is to have a positive attitude going into any networking session, happy hour, cocktail party or conference. If you aren?t thrilled about coming to the event, then you might as well not go, because showing up without a positive attitude will send a message to everyone else that you are not interested in them.

2. Dress Appropriately for the Occasion

My friend Antonio Centeno has written a wonderful overview of how to dress appropriately for a networking event over at the Art of Manliness. In fact, the first time I met Antonio was at a conference, and he stood out to me as someone I wanted to meet because of how well-dressed he was.

Wearing the right attire to a networking event cannot be understated, as people will be making snap judgments about you. So you should aim to dress 10% better than everyone else in the room.

You should also be sensitive to the industry you are in so that your attire is appropriate. People dress more casually in the entertainment and advertising industries and more formally in the financial services industry.

3. Bring Business Cards

I don?t understand people who show up to a networking event without business cards. You should have a well-designed card, even if you don?t have a job, with your phone number and contact information.? It?s easy to order an inexpensive but good-looking stack of business cards any of a number of online services, such as Vistaprint.

You should have a goal of getting rid of as many of these cards as possible. Pretend your business cards are on fire if you have to. If you have trouble asking people for their business card in return, then the best thing you can do is to practice, practice, practice. It will get easier.

I also recommend putting your business cards somewhere easily accessible before walking in to the event, so that you don?t have to dig around your wallet or purse in order to fish out a card. If the cards are more easily accessible, you are more likely to exchange cards with someone.

I also recommend keeping a scrap of paper or small notebook with you so that you can jot down someone?s contact information if they do, heaven forbid, fail to bring business cards. Do not rely on them to email you as I?ve found most people who forget to bring a business card will also forget to email you a follow up with their contact information (even if they promise they will email you ? they won?t).

4. Do Research in Advance

One great tip is to research the people who you may meet at the event well before you arrive. Find out if the event you are going to publishes a list of attendees in advance. If there is an advance list, you can identify people who are coming who you want to speak with at the event. Services like Evite.com and eventbrite.com often publish attendee lists.

In her book Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future (affiliate link), author Dorie Clark profiles one successful executive who ?stalked the biographies? of people he admired. These days, websites like LinkedIn makes it very easy to research peoples? career histories. Given how accessible information is online these days, I think you are more likely to commit a faux pas by not knowing details about someone?s background than you are to commit a foul by knowing details about them.

In fact, not doing research in advance can even be embarrassing. I went to a small dinner in San Francisco recently where I ended up sitting next to the wife of a famous author of a book about entrepreneurship. This book had been on my ?must read? list for months. The dinner conversation inevitably turned to the husband?s book and I could only sit there, helpless, like I was stuck on mute. I had nothing to contribute. (I also didn?t want to admit I hadn?t read the book yet.)

If I had done research in advance, I might have known this woman would be there and been more prepared by having read the book.

5. Arrive on Time

Arriving on time sends a message that you are disciplined, organized and respectful. In addition, I find that arriving to a partially empty room is easier than arriving to a full room. When you arrive to a room early, you are forced to meet the few other early arrivers.

When you arrive late, then the whole room may be full and it can be more awkward to walk up to someone at random and introduce yourself.

6. Avoid the Hors D?Oeuvres Table

Few things are less attractive than a person talking with a mouth full of food. If you must eat, keep it clean and neat and do not open your mouth while eating. Try to eat quickly.

If you can avoid the hors d?oeuvres table, then you should. Most networking events are short ? between 1 to 2 hours. Any time spent at the buffet is going to be a wasted opportunity.? You are literally leaving money on the table.? Think of it this way: those cheese and crackers are not really ?free? ? they are actually costing you money in terms of lost business and opportunities.

7. Look People in the Eye and Shake Hands

Studies have shown that people who look others in the eye are naturally perceived as being more powerful, warm, personable, and attractive. I am always perplexed when I meet someone and their eye contact is fleeting or distracted. By contrast, when I meet someone who makes solid eye contact, I immediately have a feeling that this person is warm and engaging.

On a related note, it is also important to have a firm and strong handshake. When you are meeting people, extend your hand and grip like you mean it. No ?limp fish? here, people.

8. Set a Goal for the Event

When I worked in politics earlier in my career, I worked for a number of politicians who would attack networking mixers with the ferocity of a pitbull. Although politicians get a bad rap most of the time (often deserved), there is a reason why they do this ? because it is effective.

If I told you that you could make more money in your career by really embracing networking events, would you take these events more seriously? I?m betting the answer is yes.

I find that the best way to teach yourself how to network at an event effectively is to set a solid goal for each event. Your goal could be the number of people you speak to, or number of business cards collected, or number of follow up appointments scheduled. Whatever your goal is, just make sure you set a goal and follow through with it.

Go Home Happy

After a face-to-face networking event, you should walk away with a bit of a skip in your step from the people you met and relationships you?ve already started to develop. If you go away from a networking event and don?t feel excited about it, then maybe you are going to the wrong kinds of networking events or haven?t set clear goals for your career or business.

The bottom line is you should find a networking event, get out there, and meet some people.

I?m sure you have some other ideas about how to network at an event.? What tips do you have? Please share them with everyone else below!

Photo credit: takomabibelot/Flickr

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John Corcoran

John Corcoran has worked in Hollywood, written speeches for President Bill Clinton and lost his job when Arnold Schwarzenegger became the Governator. Even though he's lived in California most of his life, he is the world's worst surfer, although he does speak Valley Girl fluently. His day job is working with small business owners and entrepreneurs as a lawyer and business advisor.

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Source: http://smartbusinessrevolution.com/how-to-network-at-an-event/

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RE-EXAMINING THE 'FORGOTTEN WAR'

WASHINGTON -- The Korean War has never exactly been the war that young men came back from whispering, "It was the greatest moment of my life." It was not the war that journalists wrote books about the second- or third-"greatest generation."

It was a war spanning those ambiguous years, 1950 to 1953, sandwiched between the "Big War" of the 1940s and the confusing wars in the years afterward, from Vietnam to Iraq, that no one would accuse of being the "good wars."

And yet, this weekend the armistice that ended the war in 1953 is being celebrated here. The Korean War Memorial is a thrilling commemoration. More and more, analysts and journalists are writing to remember the "forgotten war," where so many died facing the "Red Chinese" for the first time, and history is recording the daring tactics that were used there.

To talk about all of this, I went to one of the few remaining survivors of that war, former ambassador and strategic arms adviser Gen. Edward L. Rowny, now 96 years old. At the time of the Korean War, he was Gen. Douglas MacArthur's spokesman and one of the planners of both the amazing Inchon landing and the dropping of a fully employable bridge to help our troops escape the awful fighting at the Chosin Reservoir.

A mere five years after the end of the wars in Europe and the Pacific, then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson mistakenly left out the Korean peninsula from an important strategy statement on those parts of the world the United States would defend. It did not take long for the Russians to respond, sending the North Korean troops they controlled to attack the South.

In Tokyo, where MacArthur was still, with enormous success, supplanting the emperor in Japanese minds, troops were already preparing to go home; now, instead, they would move swiftly to Korea. But where to land?

To suggestions from his staff, the mince-no-words MacArthur declared, "You're all pusillanimous. Why not terrain-hop and land in Inchon? Have you considered that?"General Rowny responded that, realistically, Inchon, a small port town on the west coast of the Korean peninsula, "has a 32-foot tide, the greatest tidal range in the world. It would be difficult for a landing force to fight without reinforcements until they could arrive on the next tide." But the fact that the Pentagon itself was for evacuating American troops from Japan did not stop MacArthur, who advised that day, "Go for the throat. The tides are simply another obstacle to be overcome."

Despite the obstacles, in mid-September the first ships rode the waves of high tide onto Inchon's beaches and city walls, for which special aluminum ladders were built. Twelve hours later, the second wave of Americans arrived.

MacArthur afterward gave Rowny a bear hug and told him, "Rowny, Inchon will go down in history as the 22nd greatest battle of the world."

For the Inchon landing involved a heroic and nearly superhuman effort on the part of the American strategists, a major one being Rowny, then a tall, handsome man of Polish descent who could do everything from speak flawless Russian to outflank the Chinese. All of these details are available on Amazon in short book form, "An American Soldier's Saga of the Korean War," which will soon be out in full book form as "Smokey Joe and the General, The Tale of Gen. John E. Wood and His Protege, Lt. Ed Rowny."

But more was to come. Months later, when American troops had taken Seoul and then crossed the 38th parallel and moved toward the North Korean/Chinese border at the Yalu River, MacArthur's daring proved rather too daring.

As Chinese troops poured over the border and it became impossible for the Americans to retreat, Rowny and the other planners designed a bridge to span the Koto-Ri chasm, which ranged from 30 to 100 feet wide. They decided to use a C-119 cargo plane to airdrop parts of a treadway bridge, which would then be rebolted together on the ground.

"It was an ambitious idea whose biggest obstacle was finding an Air Force pilot brave enough to airdrop the sections, since most argued that it couldn't be done," Gen. Rowny told me. "The airplane's weight would shift too dramatically when parts were unloaded."

But this, too, was accomplished by daring American pilots, and thousands of Americans were thus evacuated.

Today, South Korea is one of the top 15 economies in the world. It is the very example of an Asian democracy, with education for all, amazing prosperity and even an elected female president. This is an outcome not seen in any other "small war" that we engaged in afterward.

Many can and will always argue that this was a war that did not have to be fought and should not have been; but the outcome, nevertheless, was proof that the United States can both devise inventive and successful war tactics and build a nation afterward. In all of this, the Korean War was unique.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/examining-forgotten-war-223016412.html

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Dempsey: 'Grey's Anatomy' isn't my passion

TV

Susan Young TODAY contributor

51 minutes ago

Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

Patrick Dempsey talked to reporters about "Racing LeMans" at the TV Critics summer press tour on Thursday in Beverly Hills.

Sounds like playing McDreamy can turn into a little bit of a nightmare after a decade.

"Grey's Anatomy" star Patrick Dempsey, who is the subject of the new Velocity documentary "Patrick Dempsey: Racing LeMans," says in the film that he wants to be a full-time race-car driver. That's not exactly good news for fans of ABC's medical drama, which the actor has been a part of since it debuted 2005.

Dempsey may not be leaving the hit show just yet, but while promoting the documentary Thursday at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, he told TODAY.com that he doesn't quite have the enthusiasm for his work on "Grey's" that he once had.

?Work on a TV show doesn?t change,? Dempsey said. ?In a race, it changes constantly, every lap, every corner, every moment of that day. And that?s very exciting. And it keeps me alive. And then I can go back to work and enjoy it."

He also said that there?s a ?purity to (racing) that?s missing from the work I do as an actor.?

"I'm not necessarily bored with the show. I'm incredibly grateful to have a show that's been on for 10 years,? he said. "When you're on the show, coming up on 200 episodes, it's about surviving. There's not a lot of homework that goes into it. You learn your lines and try to stay present and try not to get caught acting. I'm glad I have the gig, but it's not the same as being in a race car."

Dempsey's character, brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd, has certainly done his share of surviving over the seasons. From a living through a plane crash to getting shot in the chest and more, Shepherd has been soldiering on, giving Dempsey plenty of lines to memorize.

But don?t get the actor wrong ? he wasn't dissing the show. Dempsey said that "Grey's" has been great for his career and allows him to do what he?s passionate about: race.

?I?m glad to have the gig, but it?s not the same as being in a race car. It?s just not.?

Eric Dane, who played Dr. Mark Sloan until the character was killed off in 2012, said he has great respect for his former co-star as an actor, and said Dempsey is dedicated to his craft.

?Look, he has a strong passion for racing as illustrated by the amount of time he spends behind the wheel,? Dane told TODAY.com. ?But I don?t buy for a second that acting is something he does on the side to support his racing. He?s too good of an actor not to be passionate about it."

"Racing LeMans" is a four-part miniseries that follows Dempsey's attempt at completing LeMans, a 24-hour endurance race in France, as he juggles family and work responsibilities.

Watch the actor do what he's passionate about when "Patrick Dempsey: Racing LeMans" premieres Aug. 28 at 10 p.m. on Velocity, a Discovery channel.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/patrick-dempsey-greys-anatomy-isnt-my-passion-8C10751494

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Verizon Wants to Let You Upgrade Your Phone More Often Too

Droid Life got their hands on internal Verizon slides that reveal that Verizon has plans to let its customers upgrade their phones more often. Yeah, kind of like T-Mobile's Jump plan. The 'VZ Edge' plan will supposedly let Big Red customers upgrade to a new phone once they have paid off 50% of their phone. Upgrade before your upgrade. Pay to keep paying.

Read more...

Source: http://gizmodo.com/verizon-wants-to-let-you-upgrade-your-phone-more-often-794529361

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Italy's Eni lowers targets at Iraq oil field

BAGHDAD -- The Italian oil company Eni says it has agreed to lower production targets at a major oil field in Iraq's south while extending the length of the contract by five years.

Foreign oil companies have helped turn around Iraq's dilapidated oil industry in recent years, but export bottlenecks have forced Iraqi officials to rethink the pace of oil field development.

Eni says the deal signed Monday in Baghdad sets a new target at the Zubair field of 850,000 barrels of oil per day through 2035.

The 20-year deal it signed with Iraq in 2010 originally called for 1.2 million barrels of daily production.

Eni is the main contractor developing the 4.1 billion barrel Zubair field as part of a consortium that includes Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum and South Korea's KOGAS.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/15/3501138/italys-eni-lowers-targets-at-iraq.html

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After Elbow Surgery, Baseball Players Enjoy Successful Long-term Results

This is according to research presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.

"Previous studies showed successful return to play after UCL surgery, but we were also able to evaluate each athlete's career longevity and reason for retirement," commented lead author, Daryl C. Osbahr, MD of MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. "These players typically returned to play within a year of surgery and averaged an additional 3.6 years of playing time, a significant amount considering the extensive nature of this surgery in a highly competitive group of athletes. They also typically did not retire from baseball secondary to continued elbow problems."

The study examined 256 patients, including high school, college and professional baseball players, and were contacted an average of 12.6 years after their UCL reconstruction. Approximately 83 percent of these athletes were able to return to the same or higher level of competition, with only 3 percent reporting persistent elbow pain and only 5 percent noting limitation of elbow function during day-to-day activities.

"UCL injuries used to be considered career-ending," Osbahr noted. "Now players are consistently able to return to play at a high level while also enjoying excellent long-term outcomes."

While approximately 243 (95%) of the athletes studied had retired by the minimum 10-year follow-up, 238 (98%) still participated in throwing at a recreational level with most reporting no elbow pain.

The research earned AOSSM's O'Donoghue Sports Injury Research award, given annually to the best overall paper that deals with clinical-based or human in-vivo research.

Source-Eurekalert

Source: http://feeds.medindia.com/~r/allhealthnews/~3/K-7ljUADp4A/after-elbow-surgery-baseball-players-enjoy-successful-long-term-results-122077-1.htm

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