SMOKING–THE EVIL INSTINCT OF MAN

Introduction

Smoking is one of the major causes of deaths worldwide. Smoking is of different forms, whether it is Cigar, Cigarette, Beedi or Hookah, the result is only one thing, i.e. death. Smoking involves inhaling and absorbing various poisonous chemicals inside the body. These chemicals are highly addictive making a person consuming it habitual. The common chemicals include: nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide.


Main chemicals in smoke

• Nicotine: It is the natural constituent of Tobacco products. Nicotine has mild Pharmacological properties and also mild stimulant similar to that of Caffeine. It has the depressant effect on the Central Nervous System (CNS). Nicotine present in tobacco is addictive as cocaine and has a risk of experiencing withdrawal symptoms. It can cause a wide variety of symptoms like alertness or relaxation changes in mood and behavior and also increases blood pressure.
• Carbon monoxide: This gas is formed by burning of organic substances. And while smoking tobacco burns and emits this gas which is highly poisonous and has very slow effect of heart disease risks.
• Tar: It is the particulate matter which is extracted in the lab in the form of tiny particles from the Cigarette smoke. This is highly organic content and one of the major causes for cancer in smokers. Many Cigarette brands in the world have the composition of tar and nicotine content in their packs.

Passive smoking and the health hazard

Tobacco smoke is dangerous to non-smokers. Exposure to smoke is called Passive smoking, increases the risk of same effect as a real smoker has. Smokers and those living with smokers, have a greater risk of having fatal heart diseases and peptic ulcers. On an average, people who smoke die 5 to 8 years earlier than non-smokers. Smokers and those involved with them have all cases of lung cancer.


Health hazards due to smoking

Smoking is the major cause for emphysema, a debilitating lung disease which slowly decreases the ability of man to breathe normally. Smoking is highly dangerous for people with heart disease, blood vessel disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and the family history of these diseases. Their risk of developing throat, mouth, esophageal, pancreatic, kidney, bladder and cervical cancer is greater than non-smokers.
Smokers have the very high risk of hip, wrist and fractures of spine. It complicates the sleeping disorders.
Smoking affects the pregnant women and their unborn children more. Smoking mothers have greater chances of miscarriage and stillbirth. Children born to them have very lower birth weights on average. Children of smokers usually become smokers themselves. Fortunately, if the smoker quits smoking many risks of life decreases.


Conclusion

Overall cigarette smoking is one of the most dreadful habitual of mankind and the worlds most complex mixtures are part of the smoke. Tobacco contains thousands of different constituents (approx. 25000 have been identified so far). The complexity of cigarette smoking lies among the difficulties researchers all over the world face, in finding the right constituent that cause health hazards. So it is individual’s responsibility to take care of his health and also the people with whom he involves. So Prevention is better than Cure. So Quit smoking or say no to smoking and make the environment smoke free.

SECOND SATURDAY

WHY IS SECOND SATURDAY, A HOLIDAY?

According to the book of Genesis in the Bible, the world was created in six days and the seventh day (Saturday) was a day of rest and worship. The ancient Egyptians also considered this day a day of rest and play. Saturday is the Sabbath among the Jews and the only day named after a Roman God, Saturn. In support of this historical belief, across cultures, most employers give their workers either a half day or a full holiday on this day. Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar system and hence second Saturday is a holiday.


COMPOSITION OF MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE

Monosodium glutamate (MSG, Vetsin) is a monosodium salt (with one sodium ion) of glutamic acid. Chemically, it is HOOC-CH2-CH2-CH(NH2)-COONa. It’s widely used as a taste enhancer in place of vinegar derivatives in soups, sauces, etc. because of its pleasantly tangy taste. Recent scientific studies have shown that this salt does a lot more stimulate the taste bud. Excess consumption is known to cause a disorder called as Chinese restaurant syndrome.

Cool facts

WHO CREATED THE FIRST MAP OF THE WORLD?

The Greeks are credited with putting map making on a sound mathematical footing. The earliest Greek known to have made a map of the world was Anaximander. In 6th century BC, he drew a map of the then known world, assuming that the earth was cylindrical. The first Greek to draw a world map using the assumption of a spherical earth was Eratosthenes. Ptolomey first drew maps of the world using latitudes and longitudes and conic projection. In 150 AD he produced a six-volume atlas called geographia containing several maps of the world known during his time.



WHO INVENTED THE BICYCLE?

The first bicycle was invented by Comte Mede de Sivrac of France around 1790. It was a wooden scooter-like contraption called celerifere. The modern form was developed by a French father and son team of carriage makers, Pierre and Ernst Michaux in 1860s which had metal tires instead of wooden ones. Later, these were replaced by air filled rubber tires in 1880s.


HOW DID BARBIE DOLL GET ITS NAME?

Barbie’s creator Ruth Handler named the doll after her daughter Barbara. It made its debut at the New York International American Toy Fair on March 9, 1959, which is widely celebrated as Barbie’s birthday. Handler fashioned Barbie after she noticed that her daughter quite enjoyed playing with adult-looking dolls rather than then prevalent models of dolls made to resemble infants. Her husband Elliot Handler was the co-founder of the Mattel Toy Company.


WHAT IS CREDIT CARD SKIMMING?

Skimming is the unauthorized copying of information stored on the magnetic strip of a credit card. This information is used to create a cloned card, which is then used for fraudulent transactions in retail outlets or on the internet. The stolen details can also be used for identity theft. Credit card skimming occurs when someone uses a hand-held device called a skimmer, which resembles an ATM keyboard. The credit card is swiped through the device, and the device reads the magnetic strips on your credit cards. Now the thief has the information needed to make a counterfeit card.

DO YOU KNO

WHY DOES MILK OVERFLOW WHEN BOILED BUT WATER DO NOT?

Milk is not a simple liquid–it contains tiny globules of fat and casein which are not dissolved but suspended in water. On heating milk, there occurs a separation of constituents and some other elements like cream, being lighter, and float up. After sometime, a membrane-like film containing cream and casein is formed. When milk begins to boil, the heat energy is used for conversion of water into steam. As a result, the pressure below the film increases suddenly and the rising bubbles of steam makes the milk overflow. On heating water, no such film is formed and the bubbles of steam formed by boiling escape easily without resistance. Hence, water does not overflow on boiling.


WHAT IS THE MAGNETIC HILL IN LADAKH?

The Magnetic Hill is located on the Leh-Kargil-Batalik National Highway, about 30 kms from Leh, at a height of 14,000 ft above sea level. The hill supposedly has magnetic properties which attracts metallic objects, making vehicles move up at a speed of about 20 kmph with their engines off. However, many feel that it’s a mere optical illusion and nothing to do with magnetic fields, electricity or unknown forces working along mysterious lines.


ARE HOME LIZARDS POISONOUS?

The home lizard or gecko, found in most homes, is not poisonous at all. It only checks insect population. The only poisonous lizard in the world is the Heloderma, also called as Gila monster and beaded lizard. It’s found in large numbers near Gila River in South-western United States.

AMAZING TECH FACTS OF INTERNET

Ø Yahoo! Derived its name from the word YAHOO coined by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels. A Yahoo is a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human.
Ø According to the research the first search engine was Archie, created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student of Montreal, Canada.
Ø The top visited websites yearly are Yahoo, MSN, the Time Warner Network, eBay, Google, Lycos and About.com.
Ø The world average of people connected to Internet is 11.5 per cent.
Ø Marc Andreessen founded Netscape. In 1993, he developed Mosaic, the first web browser with the GUI.
Ø The search engine “Lycos” is named after Lycosidae, The Latin name for the wolf spider family.
Ø The @ sign used in email address has its own significance. It was once considered as an English letter. The Chinese call it the “little mouse”. The Danes and Swedes call it “Elephant’s Trunk”. Germans call it spider monkey. Italians call it snail. Israelis call it by name “Strudels” and the Czechs say it as “roll mops”.
Ø Lurking is to read through mailing lists or news groups and get a feel of the topic before posting ones own messages.
Ø WAIS stands for ‘Wide Area Information Servers’ – a commercial software package that allows the indexing of the huge quantities of information, and then makes them searchable across the Internet.
Ø The original URL of Yahoo! was http://akebono.stanford.edu/?
Ø UIML (User Interface Markup Language) is a descriptive language that lets you create a web page that can be sent to any kind of interface device.
Ø Boeing was the first airliner to discover the Y2K problem.
Ø On an average, each person receives 26.4 emails a day.
Ø The first Internet worm was created by Robert T. Morris, Jr, and attacked more than 6000 Internet hosts.
Ø The first computer company to register for domain name was Digital Equipment Corporation.
Ø Google got its name from the mathematical figure googol, which denotes the number ‘one followed by a hundred zeros’.
Ø Telnet is the oldest form of Internet connections. Today it is used for accessing online databases.
Ø The most expensive domain name was ‘business.com’, which was bought by ecompanies for $7.5 million in 1999.
Ø The first ever ISP was CompuServe. It still exists under AOL.
Ø Ray Tomlinson introduced electronic mail in 1972. He used @ to distinguish between senders name and network name in email address.
Ø Satyam online became the first private ISP to offer Internet connections in India.
Ø The Internet is the third mostly used advertising medium in the world, closely catching up with traditional local newspaper and yellow pages.
Ø The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.
Ø After English, Japanese and German are the most used languages on the Net.
Ø The top three companies spending most on web advertising are Microsoft, Amazon.com and TRUSTe.
Ø PhotoHighway.com introduced the first Internet photography site to offer software that allows people to load photos directly from digital camera to a website.