E-cigarette ‘vaping’ advert on air

London (BBC): The first UK TV advert featuring the use of an electronic cigarette - vaping - will be shown later. While e-cigarette adverts have been on television for some time, showing the device itself was banned until a change in advertising rules which came into force overnight. However, the Committee of Advertising Practice has ruled that adverts must not show tobacco “in a positive light”. Critics warn showing e-cigarette use could normalise the imagery of smoking. The British government banned cigarette advertising on television in 1965. 1. On some e-cigarettes, inhalation activates the battery-poweredatomiser. Other types are manually switched on. 2. A heating coil inside the atomiser heats liquid nicotine contained in a cartridge. 3. Liquid nicotine becomes vapour and is inhaled. The “smoke” produced is largely water vapour.
 Many e-cigarettes have an LED light as a cosmetic feature to simulate traditional cigarette glow. Post-watershed The new rules, put in place by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) state that adverts must not: The new advert will be shown after the watershed and run for five weeks. It shows a woman exhaling vapour from an e-cigarette. Dave Levin of VIP, the Bury-based company behind the advert, says: “This advert will mark the first time in almost 50 years that TV audiences see someone exhale what appears to be cigarette smoke on an advert. However, it is actually vapour from an e-cigarette that they will see. “E-cigarettes have attracted a lot of controversy recently, which has largely been due to concerns over safety, so it will be interesting to see how people respond to our advert’s debut.” Prof Martin McKee, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, opposed the change to advertising rules. He told the BBC: “This is a very daft idea, as many of us said during the consultation. “A lot of questions need to be answered about e-cigarettes before adverts are even considered. “First we need to get an agreement on whether they aid people to quit smoking or whether they become a lifestyle choice that people are going to use for 40 years - this hasn’t been resolved yet. “And there are still huge questions about their safety,” Prof McKee added. “Experts are also particularly concerned the adverts may lead to the renormalisation of images of smoking again. A number of e-cigarette companies are owned by the tobacco industry.” Serious concerns Deborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity Ash, commented: “There is growing evidence that people are using electronic cigarettes as a way of cutting down or quitting smoking and very little evidence of people who have never smoked using them. “Vaping is safer than smoking, but e-cigarettes should only be promoted to smokers. “The VIP adverts sexualise e-cigarette use and encourage their use by everyone, not just smokers,” she said. “Ash doesn’t see how these adverts conform to the guidelines and if they do then we are seriously concerned that the advertising guidelines are not fit for purpose.”

‘Butter refugees’ cry over milk

TOKYO (AFP): Japanese shoppers are up in arms over a serious butter shortage that has forced Tokyo to resort to emergency imports, as some grocers limit sales to one block per customer. Some shop shelves are bare and stores are trumpeting the arrival of new supplies with posters in the windows announcing “We have butter!” With Christmas cake-baking season fast approaching, social media has been abuzz over the shortage, with Twitter user @justastarter1 claiming to be a “butter refugee” after trailing between shops without success. The agriculture ministry said the problem is linked to a broiling summer that left the nation’s cows exhausted and unable - or unwilling - to generate their usual milk supply.
The bovine strike has sapped supply just as dairy farmers trim their herds to cope with Japan’s dwindling population and falling demand. And with farmers prioritising supply for liquid milk to keep the supermarket shelves stocked, Japan now faces a shortage in the raw material used to produce butter - popular among home bakers. In a bid to try and keep the nation’s kitchens operating, the government in May imported 7,000 tons of butter, and a further 3,000 tons in September, the first time in years Tokyo has raided foreign dairy markets. “Judging from inventory levels at the end of September, stockpiles are down 30 percent from a year earlier so we’re in a shortage trend,” said an agriculture ministry official. But not many farmers are willing to raise milk production, the official added. “They are concerned about where the dairy farming industry will go in the future as they see feed prices soaring,” he said. A sharply weaker yen has sent the price of imported feed grain skyward. Japan’s raw milk production was 7.45 million tons in the year ended in March, down 14 percent from the peak year 19 years ago, according to government data.     The pinhole camera made from lego brick (snip10lego)  MOL London   A student has created a tiny working camera out of a Lego brick. Graphic design student Ryan Howerter, 21, made a fully functional pinhole camera, which creates tiny photographic prints, housed in the space of the small toy block. The Lego fan’s tiny camera takes minuscule black and white photographs measuring 0.16 square inches (one square centimetre square). Mr Howerter, a student at Colorado State University, said: ‘You can make a pinhole camera out of nearly anything. ‘I love Lego - you can do so much with it.’  A pinhole camera is a camera without a lens. It has a small hole in one side that acts as an aperture to let in light. When you point the camera at an object, light from the object travels through the hole and projects an inverted image on the film along the opposite side of the box. This technique is similar to how eyes see and process images. The smaller the hole, the sharper the image, yet the dimmer it will appear. A pinhole camera’s shutter is manually operated by a flap of card, for example. The Lego camera works by exposing a sheet of photographic paper to light from a tiny pinprick. Light comes in the side and strikes the photographic film, creating an image.  The paper can then be developed in exactly the same way as a full-size photograph. The camera, which can be held by a Lego figure, is made of a black two-by-two lego brick, a sheet of brass with a hole in the middle, and is sealed using black tape. Mr Howerter said: ‘The pictures are a little bit fuzzy but people are impressed by it.’ ‘The hardest part about building it is removing the central supporting column inside the brick - you have to use a dremel [tool] to get it out. ‘I usually expose the pinhole for around ten seconds to get the images.’ Mr Howerter was inspired by a working pinhole camera made from a pine nut. His Lego creation only took 20 minutes to build.  

Migratory animals get protection

QUITO(AFP): Polar bears, whales, sharks and gazelles were among 31 new species granted new protection status Sunday by the UN conservation body, following six days of “intense” talks by leading conservationists.  The UN Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) said six days of “intense negotiations” led to new protection for scores of bird, fish and mammal migratory species.  A record 21 species of shark, ray and sawfish were added to the list. The polar bear, which is found in the Arctic and the widely-distributed Cuvier’s beaked whale made the list too.  Also newly protected are the red-fronted gazelle, common in Africa, and the great bustard, found in Europe and Asia.
Protecting these animals is key for overall environmental conservation.
“Migratory animals have become the global flagships for many of the pressing issues of our time,” said CMS executive secretary Bradnee Chambers.
“From plastic pollution in our oceans, to the effects of climate change, to poaching and over-exploitation, the threats migratory animals face will eventually affect us all.”
More than 900 experts from 120 countries met for the six-day meeting, approving all but one proposed species to be included on the protected wildlife list.
The African lion did not make the final cut because there was not enough information from the countries where it lives.
The conference was the best-attended in the body’s 35-year history, and CMS hailed the “unprecedented” level of attention to the topic.
The director of the UN Environment Program, which administers CMS, said global interest in animal protection was crucial.
“The responsibility for protecting wildlife is a shared one, and that the threats to wildlife can be tackled most effectively through global cooperation,” said UN Undersecretary-General Achim Steiner, who heads the UNEP.
The next CMS meeting will be held in the Philippines in 2017.