As I’ve been out and about on public transport this week, at various times I have seen quite young children, secondary school age but probably only about 12 or 13 years old, puffing away on E cigarettes. I read some information comparing the amount of nicotine in old fashioned cigarettes and E cigarettes. It seems quite hard to make a comparison. But it seems to me that if youngsters are vaping away at almost any time of day, rather than having a cheeky puff on a cigarette behind the bike shed and probably sharing one between several of them, it’s highly likely they are taking in more nicotine the “modern” way. Besides they would usually sneak away to somewhere secluded to have a crafty fag, whereas I see them quietly get an E cigarette out on the bus and have a little puff, as you might sneak a sweet into your mouth. What is going on with our young people?
Then there’s the Titan, that submersible that got lost. Last night on a radio programme, possibly the BBC’s PM, I heard a Titanic expert way that he had been told on Monday that the Titan had imploded. Its shape, he said, was all wrong for withstanding the pressure of all that sea water. Everything seemed to be wrong with its design. But he implied that he had been told that this was not news for public consumption. And so the rescue mission, which can’t have been cheap, went ahead with all kinds of speculation about how much oxygen the five occupants had left.
Then this morning I found this on social media:
“So I just found out the 19 year old on the Titan sub didn't wanna do the trip at all, and was absolutely terrified and concerned for his safety, but agreed to it because it was Father's day and he didn't wanna disappoint his dad, who'd been pressuring him into doing it.
So yah, yet another takeaway from this: Overbearing parents don't always know best and kids should absolutely stay true to themselves instead of trying to please their parents.
This is the real tragedy here. Lack of respect for his right to informed consent leveraged by extreme power dynamic.”
Of course, I have no idea how true that is but it sounds sadly plausible.
Personally I find the obsession with getting down really close to the Titanic, which after all is the last resting place for lots of the passengers, rather strange and morbid. Rather like stopping to gawp at a car crash. And yet I read of a couple who arranged to be married on a submersible just above the Titanic site. Not the romantic setting I would have chosen but there it is. People are decidedly odd!
Meanwhile yet another boat has capsized between Tunisia and Lampedusa. 37 people are missing, many of them women and children. The 4 reported survivors are adult men. In the overloaded boat that went down recently near Greece it seems that the women and children were mostly on the lower decks. Are the women put in lower parts of these boats for their “safety”? I wonder.
There’s also a good deal of talk on discussion programmes about the benefits of napping - yet another way of staving off the aging process apparently. Years ago, when I was bright young 40 something working in a college in Bolton I came across my head of department, an “older” lady in her 50s, with her head down the desk. Goodness! I thought, has she collapsed? Is she all right? She was power-napping, having told her inner alarm to allow her sleep no more than 20 minutes, recharging her batteries for the afternoon’s tasks. A 20 minute nap is what the experts recommend. This was the 1990s. She was clearly ahead of her time. Now in her 80s, I hear she is still busy organising charity activities of one kind and another. An example to us all!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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