E-Cigarettes?

China's Golden Dragon has probably found the real road to riches with its toy. The brilliant Ruyan e-cigarette purportedly "feels like a cigarette and looks like a cigarette, but it isn't bad for your health." The battery-powered device is used exactly like a typical, harmful cigarette, but rather than delivering tar and toxins to the lungs along with nicotine, the poisons are stripped away and doses of nicotine are still provided. Interestingly, the company claims that its product is simply the best way to kick the habit, but if these things actually do what they claim, it honestly seems like a marvelous ploy to get folks to shift their funding from tobacco-based cigarettes to the Ruyan. The gizmos are already available in China, Israel, Turkey, and a number of European countries for around $208 apiece, and while profits have "more than doubled" in just a year's time already, bringing this thing to the US would certainly provide a few early retirements.

I don't smoke, so I could be wrong, but isn't the nicotine just one of 8000 things in cigarettes that's bad for you? So it's still bad for your health...just not as bad as a normal cigarette. And where does this nicotine come from? Do you buy it and load it into the cigarette? That's just going to lead to people eventually bypassing the e-cig and chowing down on some mad tasty nicotine cartridges!

This seems like it would take away the fun of smoking a cigarette. I mean, how are you going to flick the butt into someone's face a la The Usual Suspects if the thing is worth $200? Daniel Baldwin would NOT approve.


"I do not approve, bitches!"

RANDOM THOUGHT: Remember that band Smashmouth? It seems like all they're up to these days is sitting around hoping for

1. Another Shrek movie so they can be on the soundtrack
2. Another Pizza Hut commercial

Seriously, those are the only 2 things these guys do anymore. I don't even think they still write albums. They just sit in a recording studio on the off chance that it's time for another Shrek or a Pizza Hut commercial.

Yesterday was their lucky day. Not only did I see a commercial for the new Shrek movie AND a Pizza Hut commercial with one of their songs, but I saw them BACK-TO-BACK! Those guys must me (temporarily) rolling in he dough. If any member of Smashmouth owes you money, now would be a good time to give them a call.



And for no other reason than the fact that I'm bored (and how much I know you all love lists!), here's the Top 5 things from my childhood that I randomly remember loving, only to be forgotten years later (until today):

1. Howard The Duck

Remember this movie? I swear I watched it about 20 times when I was younger, but I have no freakin' clue what it's about nowadays. Maybe I should rent it and refresh. I do vaguely remember something about a topless lady-duck that had boobs. I guess there's some things you never forget...

2. Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em

This is one of the first 2 cassettes I ever owned. I listened to this album more than anything else in my life. I still know most of the words to "Crime Story" (You get no glory!). The best part about that song is when he's doing the talking bit at the end where he's like "Two my brothers in a gang. They go around doin' what they feel they have to do. Let's let the young kids...10...11...12 years old...let's let them do their thing at schoolhouse!" And no, I didn't have to look up any of that to remember it. Legit!

3. Skip-It!

And the very best thing of all...
There's a counter on this ball!
Try to get the very best score,
See if you can jump a whole lot more!

I guarantee that if you start singing that son right now, wherever you are, if there's at least 3 people around, one of them will start singing along. The only beef I have with the Skip-It is that the counter never worked. You could go for like 1000 reps and look down and see the counter at "0007". It was nice living in a simpler time where a piece of heavy plastic attached to your leg was a great toy.

4. Adventure Island

I don't care if it was harder than fuck to play this game...Adventure Island was the shit!

5. Dinosaurs

If you can find a catch phrase that was both dumber AND more popular than "Not the mama!" then I will give you a dollar. I don't think it's possible.

Looking back, that baby looks a lot like another misbehaved child...hmmm...